THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


YOGA    LESSONS 

FOR 

DEVELOPING 
SPIRITUAL 

CONSCIOUSNESS 

BY 

SWAMIE  A.  P.  MUKERJI 

ASSOCIATE  EDITOR, 
KALPAKA  MAGAZINE  OF  INDIA 


PUBLISHED  BY 

YOGI  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

MASONIC  TEMPLE,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


REPRESENTATIVES 
L.  N.  FOWLER  &  COMPANY 
IMPERIAL  ARCADE,  LONDON,   ENGLAND. 

THE  LATENT  LIGHT  CULTURE 
TINNEVELLY,   SOUTH  INDIA. 


L  N.  FOWLER  &  CO.,  LTD., 

PUBLISHERS    —    BOOKSELLERS 
15  New  Bridge  St.,  London,  E.C.4 


Copyright  191 1 
YOGI  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 


Entered  at  Stationer' 1   Hall 


All  rights  reserved. 


■p 


15 


3Z 


/■/ 


DEDICATION 

I  dedicate  this  isork.  with  deep  re- 
spect and  love  to  D.  P.  Mul^erji 
whose  holy  blessings  I  invoke  for  the 
spiritual  well-being  of  my  readers' 
intelligence.  May  this  Great  Soul 
inspire,     Aum. 

A,  P.  Mukerji. 


1773006 


CONTENTS 

YOGA  LESSONS  FOR  DEVELOPING  SPIEITUAL 
CONSCIOUSNESS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

\    I — The  Yogi  Conception  of  Life   9 

II — The  Ideal  and  the  Practical  15 

III— Eead  and  Reflect    20 

IV — Man :      Animal   and   Divine    25 

V — ^Double    Consciousness    30 

VI— Spiritual    Unf oldment    34 

\^VII— Cause  and  Effect  42 

VIII— Man— The  Master   50 

\^IX— Self-Development    56 

\;X — Developing  the  Spiritual   Consciousness    61 

XI— Who  Can  Be  a  Yogi?   75 

XII — Constructive   Idealism    88 

XIII — Higher  Reason  and  Judgment   101 

XIV— Conquest  of  Fear   112 

XV— The  Role  of  Prayer  117 

XVI — Thought :     Creative  and  Exhaustive   130 

XVII— Meditation   Exercises    142 

XVIII— Self -De-Hypnotisation     152 

XIX— Self -De-Hypnotisation    156 

XX— Character-Building    .176 


INTRODUCTION 

Verily,  in  whom  unwisdom  is  destroyed  by  the  wisdom 
of  the  Self,  in  them.  Wisdom,  shining  as  the  Sun, 
reveals  the  Supreme.  — Bhagavad  Gita. 

Yoga  is  a  subject  which  has  enthralled  the  attention 
of  the  world  from  time  out  of  mind.  No  one  has  hith- 
erto done  justice  to  such  a  gi-and  system  though  there 
have  been,  now  and  then,  innumerable  attempts. 

The  present  author,  my  esteemed  friend,  Swami 
Mukerji,  a  Yogi  who  comes  out  of  a  successive  genera- 
tion of  Yogis,  is  a  fit  and  proper  instrument  to  handle 
the  subject.  He,  in  these  lessons  prepares  the  layman 
for  an  understanding  of  the  Yoga  and,  through  a  series 
of  wise  and  masterful  sayings,  impresses  on  tlie  mind 
of  the  reader  the  necessity  for  rising  above  material- 
ism, nay,  solves  the  very  problem  "What  am  I  ?" 

Every  line  is  pregnant  with  mature  thoughts  and 
rivets  one's  attention,  and  makes  him  think,  think, 
think. 

This  is  not  a  work  for  which  an  introduction,  briefly 
setting  forth  the  contents,  could  be  written. 

I  can  but  ask  you  to  read,  digest  and  improve. 
Dr.  T.  R.  Sanjivi,  Ph.D., 
President, 
The  Latent  Light  Cdltube. 
x^Tinnevelly,  India. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   YOGI    CONCEPTION    OF    LIFE. 

IF  we  study  the  action  of  mind  upon  mind,  of  mind 
over  matter,  of  mind  over  the  human  body,  we  may 
realize  how  "each  man  is  a  power  in  himself" — to 
use  Mr.  Eandall's  phrase  in  his  beautiful  book  on 
psychology. 

Life  is  demonstrative :  it  speaks  with  a  million,  mil- 
lion tongues.  Life  stands  for  Light  and  Love.  Con- 
templation of  Death,  which  is  really  a  change,  will  not 
lead  to  Happiness. 

All-stagnation  is  death.  Humanity  is  a  moving  mass, 
and  this  is  true  of  it  as  regards  single  units  as  well  as 
of  the  collective  whole. 

Stop  we  cannot.  We  must  go  forwards,  which  is 
"God-wards"  or  there  is  the  backward  line  of  progress 
—which  is  IGNORANCE. 

Spasms  of  activity  catch  hold  of  us  and  push  us  on- 
ward and,  similarly,  fear,  weakness  and  worry,  the 
triple  weapons  of  our  Old  Friend,  the  Devil,  catch  us 
in  their  deadly  grip  and  "crib,  cabin  and  confine"  us. 

We  all  are  preparing  to  live,  day  in  and  day  out.  Is 
it  not  so  ?    The  body  ages ;  the  soul  is  ever  on  the  alert. 

9 


10        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

We  all  are  trj'ing  to  grasp  life  in  its  proper  perspective, 
to  get  a  clear  view  of  the  goal  ahead. 

Some  say  "I  am  for  enjoying  life ;"  some  say,  "It  is 
a  bad  mixture  of  heaven  and  hell,  for  the  most  part, 
hell;"  others  stand  on  neutral  ground  and  say,  "Let 
us  make  the  best  of  a  bad  bargain.  Since  we  are  here, 
it  is  no  use  grumbling.  This  world  is  for  our  educa- 
tion." 

Eight.  Move  we  must.  It  may  be  progress  forward 
or  progress  backwards. 

Life  is  a  series  of  awakenings.  Ideas  dawn  upon  the 
mind  from  time  to  time,  are  caught  up  by  brain  and 
body  and  find  physical  expression  as  acts.  Our  out- 
ward life  with  its  environment  is  fitted  to  our  inward 
development.  Wealth,  position,  fame,  power, — all 
these  are  the  simple  expressions  of  individual  char- 
acter. This  is  not  a  platitude.  Look  and  see  for 
yourself. 

It  is  quite  necessary  that  we  should  pass  through 
certain  experiences,  that  we  rise  from  ideal  to  ideal. 
We  create  our  own  fate.  Our  sufEerings,  our  joys,  are 
so  many  projections  from  ourselves.  We  alone  are  re- 
sponsible for  them. 

Like  the  silkworm  we  build  a  cocoon  around  the  soul 
and  then  feeling  "Cramped,"  we  set  to  loosening  the 
bonds. 

Enjoyment  is  not,  ought  not  to  be  the  goal  of  life. 
Sense-en  jo}TTients  end  in  satiety  and  exhaustion. 
Power  and  self,  riches  and  all  that  riches  mean,  may  tie 


THE  YOGI  CONCEPTION  OF  LIFE  11 

us  down  to  a  narrow  sphere.  But  in  the  long  run  we 
do  come  to  know  that  happiness  is  not  in  them.  This 
is  a  tremendous  truth,  yet  God  mercifully  screens  it 
from  us  till  we  are  prepared  to  receive  it. 

^Vhat  remains  then?  Man  wants  happiness.  He 
rushes  from  one  thing  to  another  to  grasp  it,  only  to 
find  everything  slipping  through  his  fingers.  Let  none 
deny  it.  "The  aim  of  philosophy  is  to  put  an  end  to 
pain."  All  pain  is  caused  by  IGNORANCE.  Apply 
the  saving  remedy  of  KNOWLEDGE,  and  PAIN  van- 
ishes at  once.  This  is  a  great  fact  and  all  young  men 
ought  to  stamp  it  well  upon  their  minds. 

While  we  are  upon  this  phase  of  our  subject,  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  go  farther  into  these  important  facts 
of  life  — PLEASURE  and  PAIN. 

Our  thoughts  and  actions  are  the  forces  we  send  out 
of  ourselves.  All  life  is  expression.  The  soul  of  man 
is  trying  to  see  itself  in  everything.  How  did  the  dif- 
ferent organs  of  the  body  come  into  exi':tence?  IIow 
did  man  get  his  eyes,  his  ears,  his  nose  and  so  forth? 
How  does  the  growth  of  things  proceed  on  the  sub- 
conscious plane  of  existence?  The  soul  willed  to  see 
and  it  saw,  willed  to  hear  and  it  heard,  willed  to  smell 
and  it  smelt.    That  is  the  right  explanation. 

Take  a  subject,  throw  him  into  a  hypnotic  trance, 
lead  him  into  the  deepest  state  possible,  give  him  vig- 
orous suggestions  that  a  steady  increase  is  taking  place 
as  to  his  physique,  repeat  the  suggestions  twice  every 
day  for  a  few  months  and  you  will  liave  put  pounds  of 


12        DEVBLOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

flesh  on  his  form.  If  you  know  an3'thing  of  these 
things  at  all,  you  will  be  hardly  astonished.  A  striking 
case  once  occurred :  Some  frivolous  students  of  Aber- 
deen held  a  hypnotic  seance.  A  friend  of  theirs  was 
hypnotised  and  made  to  go  through  certain  illusions. 
Then  a  wet  towel  was  put  upon  his  neck  and  it  was 
suggested  to  him  that  a  sharp  knife  had  been  drawn 
right  across  his  neck  to  cut  his  throat  and  that  he  was 
dead.  It  was  such  fun !  The  students  danced  for  joy. 
But  what  was  their  surprise  when  they  found  the  man 
was  stone  dead.  It  taught  the  eternal  truth — what 
man  thinks  that  he  is,  that  he  shall  be. 

Now,  man  is  trying  to  express  himself  on  the  differ- 
ent planes  of  his  being  by  appropriating  to  himself  dif- 
ferent vehicles  of  expression.  "When  he  meets  with  oppo- 
sition, an  obstacle,  he  chafes  like  a  caged  lion.  Load 
the  limbs  of  a  man  with  fetters  of  iron  and  see  the  re- 
sult. It  is  really  this — when  we  can  push  forward 
without  opposition,  it  causes  pleasure,  a  sense  of  hap- 
piness; when  we  are  held  back  it  causes  pain.  Place 
good  food  before  a  healthy  man.  See  how  he  likes  it. 
It  is  because  he  knows  that  he  is  making  an  addition 
to  himself.  It  brings  on  a  sense  of  "MORE-NESS" 
and  pleasure  follows.  Of  course  there  are  higher 
grades  of  this  sense  of  "MORE-NESS."  Some  ancient 
doctors  defined  passion  as  an  accession  of  strength  due 
to  the  surcharge  of  arterial  blood  in  the  veins.  All 
pleasure  is  from  STRENGTH,  all  pain  from  WEAK- 
NESS.    There  can  be  no  question  as  to  this  fact. 


THE  YOGI  CONCEPTION  OF  LIFE  18 

There  is  a  fire  burning.  Heap  coals.  The  more 
coals,  the  brighter  and  steadier  the  flame.  All  obsta- 
cles are  really  "coal"  feeding  the  "flame"  of  the  spirit. 
They  spur  a  man  on.  The  vibrations  of  pain  are  often 
blessings  in  disguise.  They  drive  the  lesson  home. 
The  effect  is  not  different  from  the  cause.  Both  are  the 
obverse  and  reverse  of  the  same  coin.  Painful  results 
grow  out  of  deeds  that  clash  with  the  interests  of  the 
DIVINITY  WITHIN"— which  is  for  FREEDOM. 

'Tiord,  I  want  nothing — neither  healtli,  nor  beauty 
nor  power.  Give  me  FREEDOM  and  I  am  content." 
This  is  Jivan  muMi.  This  is  the  highest  ideal  of  life. 
Thinking  of  the  little  pleasures  of  tlie  senses  has  brought 
us  to  this :  to  dance,  to  laugh,  to  weep,  and  before  the 
tears  are  gone,  to  begin  over  again.  Look  at  my  con- 
dition. Slave  of  the  flesh,  slave  of  the  mind,  wanting 
to  have  this,  that  and  what  not.  DARKNESS  BE- 
HIND—DARKNESS AHEAD.  Such  is  the  wail  of 
IGNORANCE. 

Get  rid  of  it,  0 !  My  Friend.  It  is  your  greatest, 
direst  enemy.  Let  the  LIGHT  of  KNO^\"LEDGE 
dissipate  this  DARKNESS  of  IGNORANCE.  The 
Lord  above  is  our  refuge.  He  alone  is  STRENGTH. 
"In  Him  we  live  and  have  our  being."  Wliere  seek  you 
for  your  ideals.  Here  it  is.  FREEDOM — You  are 
rushing  to  it,  and  so  am  I.  "Welcome  everything  that 
helps  you,  yea,  compels  you,  to  strike  one  more  blow  in 
the  noble  cause  of  EMANCIPATION.  "Can  a  mar- 
ble figure  brook  the  blow  that  an  iron  mass  can  bear." 


14        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

"Know,   slave   is   slave,   caressed   or   whipped.     .     .     . 
Fetters,  though  of  gold  are  not  less  strong  to  bind." 

Thus,  let  us  work  it  out.  Let  us  cut  short  this  show 
of  five  minutes  with  death  and  decay  as  its  sequel.  We 
shall  go  beyond  this  to  the  ONE  SOURCE,  GOD;  and 
there  is  PEACE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  IDEAL  AND  THE  PRACTICAL. 

HERE  are  two  words— IMAGINATION  and  FAN- 
CY. What  is  the  distinction  between  the  two? 
Well,  the  one  is  closely  related  to  the  positive  and  the 
conscious  side  of  our  character;  the  other  can  claim  kin- 
ship with  the  negative  and  the  receptive  side  onl)\ 
Take  a  youth  starting  in  life.  He  has  not  been  born  with 
a  silver  spoon  in  his  mouth.  He  is  poor  and  has  ab- 
solutely none  to  look  to  for  help  of  any  sort  whatsoever. 
Now,  suppose  he  has  spirit,  and  instead  of  sitting 
down  and  bewailing  his  lot,  he  forms  a  definite  plan 
of  conduct,  throws  his  mind  forward  into  the  future, 
and  decides  to  reach  a  certain  state  of  development. 
He  pictures  to  himself  that  state  in  its  perfection,  plans 
out  the  methods  whereby  he  is  to  achieve  it,  takes  in 
the  difficulties  to  be  met  with  and  conquered,  and  by  an 
effort  of  common  sense  reasoning  sees  the  actual  amount 
of  good  accruing  to  humanit}-  and  to  all  of  God's  crea- 
tures in  general.  He  has  had  to  think  hard  in  order 
to  construct  the  whole  picture.  He  has  had  to  breathe 
life  upon  it  by  repeating  the  images  in  connection  with 
the  whole  picture.  He  has  had  to  acquire  knowledge, 
seek  the  advice  of  men  more  experienced  than  himself, 

15 


16        DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  all  the  while  he  has  had  to  keep  up  a  brave  and 
hopeful  attitude  of  mind.  And,  mark  you,  he  scorns 
to  think  of  failure.  It  is  for  him  to  try  his  level  best. 
It  is  for  nature,  which  is  a  hard  though  a  just  pay- 
mistress,  to  bring  him  his  reward  in  its  due  season. 

The  above  is  a  fair  example  of  the  exercise  of 
Imagination. 

Fancy  plays  us  tricks.  It  is  not  the  man  who  pulls 
the  strings  this  time.  He  simply  yields  himself  to  the 
influence  of  all  sorts  of  impossible  day-dreams.  His 
mind  is  a  sieve  for  thoughts  to  pass  in  and  out.  It  is 
an  aimless,  idle,  wandering,  and  brings  ready  victims 
for  the  "pitch-and-toss"  game  of  men  whose  principle 
is  to  "do"  others  before  the  latter  can  have  a  turn  at 
them. 

A  man  is  what  his  ideals  are.  If  one  man  with  an 
ideal  makes  fifty  mistakes  in  a  day,  the  man  without 
an  ideal  is  sure  to  commit  many  more.  This  is  a  sim- 
ple truth,  yet  it  will  bear  repetition  here.  All  mus- 
cular actions,  whether  mental  or  physical,  are  simply 
fragnaents  from  the  ideal. 

"The  life  of  the  ideal  is  in  the  practical;  it  is  the 
ideal  that  has  penetrated  the  whole  of  our  life,  whether 
we  philosophise  or  perform  the  hard,  everyday  duties 
of  life.  .  .  .  It  is  the  ideal  that  has  made  us  what 
we  are  and  will  make  us  what  we  are  to  be.  .  .  . 
The  principle  is  seldom  expressed  in  the  practical,  yet 
the  ideal  is  never  lost  sight  of" — ("Pavhari  Baba"  by 
Vivekananda). 


TEE  IDEAL  A.YZ)  TUB  PRACTICAL  17 

The  very  fact  of  the  ideal  heing  present  in  your  mind 
foreshadows  its  fulfilment. 

Our  thoughts  set  up  a  magnetic  centre  within  us. 
Like  attracts  like.  Good  thoughts  draw  to  themselves 
corresponding  thoughts.  This  fact  is  very  emphatic. 
Each  tree  brings  forth  fruits  of  its  kind.  If  we  think 
well,  we  cannot  act  ill.  The  greatness  of  a  man  must 
find  its  measure  in  the  greatness  of  his  thoughts,  and 
not  in  the  amount  of  money  in  his  pocket  or  the  bluster 
on  his  tongue. 

Our  ideal  is  the  hinge  upon  which  our  future  turns. 
We  create  our  own  fate. 

The  first  essential  is  to  pitch  our  aims  high.  Let 
us  look  upward  and  upward  alone.  Let  us  pray  to 
God  for  strength  by  all  means,  but  let  us  be  prepared 
to  deserve  His  grace  by  walking  a  straight  path. 

If  we  weave  our  thoughts  around  a  grand  purpose 
in  life  the  ideal  so  formed  may  take  material  form  any 
day.  Its  impulsion  may  stir  up  concretions  of  gross 
physical  matter  into  activity  and  may  clap  spurs  to  the 
feet  of  even  a  lazy  hack.     So  much  for  the  ideal. 

If  the  ideal  is  to  be  cherished,  it  must  also  be  nour- 
ished. If  you  simply  sit  down  and  desire  to  get  a 
thing,  you  will  never  get  it  and  it  is  good  for  you  tliat 
you  should  not.  For  the  practical  side  of  things  must 
never  be  neglected.  "Practice  makes  perfect."  Hav- 
ing set  currents  of  holy  desire  in  motion,  we  must  set 
to  deepen  them  in  intensity  and  volume. 

"Great   actions   are   only    transformed   great   concen- 


18        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOUSXESS 

Irations."  Desire  expands  the  will;  action  clinches  it 
into  strength.  Each  act  in  the  right  direction  goes  to 
establish  us  in  our  ideal.  Action  gives  us  training. 
Education  is  for  self-discipline.  Force  of  character 
is  what  we  want;  money,  fame,  praise  and  blame  may 
well  take  care  of  themselves. 

What  matters  it  what  the  world  thinks  of  me  so 
long  as  I  can  think  well  of  myself?  Have  I  a  clear 
conscience?  Is  my  body  under  my  control?  Is  my 
mind  pure?  Do  I  love  maoi?  Do  I  dare  to  look 
others  straight  in  the  eye?     Do  I  fear  anything? 

The  answer  to  such  questions  will  go  to  make  up  the 
sum  of  our  happiness  or  misery. 

A  strong  will;  a  steady  pulse;  a  pure  mind;  these 
are  what  we  want. 

But  nought  comes  from  nought — Ex  nihilo  nihil  fit. 
Nothing  will  drop  from  the  skies.  See  here,  my  brother, 
do  you  want  a  thing?  Is  it  a  good  thing?  Then 
taJce  it.  Let  us  deserve  what  we  desire.  That  is  the 
energetic  way  of  setting  about  things. 

Action,  right  action,  unselli^h  action; — these  alone 
can  give  us  strength.  To  think  is  to  act.  To  act  is 
to  live.  To  live  is  to  love.  '*Love,  Love;  that  is  the 
sole  resource." 

Therefore,  0  Thou  Soul !,  pray  to  thy  primal  source, 
God,  for  the  power  to  make  others  happy. 

Disease  may  come;  limb  after  limb  may  be  lopped 
off;  sorrow  may  strike  thee  to  the  core;  yet  cease  not 
to  desire  nobly,  and  to  bear  thyself  m  action  yet  more 
nobly. 


THE  IDEAL  AM)   THE  PRACTICAL  19 

The  privacy  of  your  own  room,  aye,  of  your  own 
mind  is  the  place  M^here  you  must  play  the  man. 

We  have  long  lived  under  the  influence  of  fear — 
the  firstborn  of  Ignorance.  Let  knowledge  come  and 
with  it  its  power — Courage. 

This  is  the  supreme  lesson  we  have  to  learn — Fear 
leads  us  from  death  to  death;  courage  opens  the  gate 
into  Life,  Serenity,  and  Joy. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

READ    AND    REFLECT. 

WHATEVER  is  worth  doing  is  worth  doing 
well;" — an  age-worn  saying  but  one  which 
cannot  be  rung  too  often  on  human  ears.  We  are 
mostly  selfish — and  all  blame  to  us ! — and  this  because 
the  Light  of  the  Lord  within  us  is  so  bedimmed  by  the 
darkness  of  the  lower  nature. 

Our  deeds  are  accomplished  best  when  we  put  heart 
in  them;  when  we  see  some  gain  accruing  to  us.  Xeed 
1  prove  this? 

What  is  the  Central  pivot  we  turn  upon?  Attrac- 
tion;— and  its  opposite,  Repulsion.  We  take  an  inter- 
est in  certain  things.  The  former  gives  us  a  touch  of 
pleasure,  the  latter  causes  pain.  Both  act  diametri- 
cally; and  the  will,  unable  to  assert  itself,  is  unable  to 
draw  to  itself  the  happiness-giving  objects.  Pain  racks 
the  soul. 

The  aim  of  philosophy  is  to  put  on  end  to  pain.  It 
does  not  bring  down  upon  us  the  gloom  of  despair,  but 
the  sunshine  of  Cheerfulness.  Applying  this  to  our 
actions  wc  see  how  philosophy,  in  the  positive  sense, 
is  a  true  helper.  It  hands  us  a  tveapon  which  cuts 
through  difficulties.     The  weapon  is  Wisdom. 

20 


BEAD  A^'D  REFLECT  21 

By  Wisdom  I  mesn  a  light  which  is  self-luminous. 
Man  has  an  infinite  field  of  Consciousness.  This 
sphere,  as  it  widens  out,  realises  for  us  all  that  we  want 
rightly.  Our  actions  become  linked  together  sym- 
metrically and  at  the  end  of  the  chain  of  wise  activity 
is  the  desired  object. 

It  is  hence  wise  to  acquire  wisdom.  How  to  do  it? 
By  unfolding  the  consciousness.  How  to  unfold? 
W^ell,  there  are  many  methods,  most  difficult;  but  I  am 
going  to  give  you  a  very  easy  one,  applying  which,  suc- 
cess is  as  sure  as  that  morning  follows  night. 

In  the  ordinary  course  of  things  we  walk  at  a  snail's 
pace,  and  progress  is  woefully  slow.  But  we  can 
quicken  the  pace  and  climb  swiftly  by  taking  ourselves 
in  hand,  by  training  the  mind. 

The  mind  is  a  queer  storehouse.  The  school-boy 
bakes  his  brain  on  a  dry  course  of  lessons  daily.  Why? 
To  train  the  mind.  That  is  education:  Controlling 
the  well-nigh  uncontrollable :  the  ever-moving,  ever-vi- 
brating mind. 

We  read  a  good  deal  and  all  to  no  purpose.  Dry 
learning  never  brings  peace  of  mind.  It  never  gives 
control  over  the  mind.  It  never  develops  the  will,  nor 
does  it  unfold  the  consciousness.  It  simply  leads  to 
brain-fag;  mental  cramp. 

Dijfusion  of  thoughts  leads  to  confusion  of  results. 
Now  suppose  the  brain  to  be  a  road  filled  with  mud. 
A  carriage  rolls  down  the  road.  The  wheels  have  left 
a  deep,  straight  tracJc  right  along  the  road.    Another 


22        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COySClOUSNESS 

carriage  passes  on  and  deepens  the  track.  It  is  exactly 
so  with  the  brain.  One  thought  passes  through  it  and 
a  track  is  made  through  the  gi'ey  matter.  The  inten- 
sity of  the  thought  will  determine  the  depth  of  the 
track. 

As  we  think,  nerve-tracks  are  created  and  the  repe- 
tition of  the  same  thought  deepens  that  nerve-track. 
New  sets  of  atoms  start  into  activity.  Brain-cells  are 
multiplied,  and  fresh  layers  of  matter  cover  up  these 
tracks.  A  similar  thought  gives  them  a  blow  and  they 
are  shaken  np,  as  it  were,  into  new  life. 

Reading  conveys  suggestions  to  the  brain  and  in- 
duces certain  trains  of  thought.  The  human  will,  if 
it  presses  a  thought  with  vigor,  increases  in  force  and 
mental  electricity  is  thus  generated.  This  is  "thought- 
force"  in  a  nutshell. 

Now  far  greater  pressure  is  exerted  if  we  think  by 
ourselves.  The  fine  nerves  of  the  brain  put  themselves 
in  a  state  of  tension,  more  life  flows  into  them,  and,  as 
this  goes  on,  the  inner  powers  of  consciousness,  of 
which  the  brain  is  only  an  instniment,  are  called  forth 
from  their  potential  into  an  active,  vigorous  condition. 

We  should  read  only  those  books  which  yield  us  fresh 
strong  thoughts,  tn  a  line  with  our  own  aims  and  aspi- 
rations in  life.  People  take  up  a  book  and  start  reading 
page  after  page  with  the  speed  of  an  express  train.  The 
mind  is  in  a  state  of  utter  confusion  and  but  faint  im- 
pressions are  being  made.  This  is  most  foolish. 
Haste  makes  waste,  remember ! 


READ  AXD  REFLECT  23 

Books  contain  thoughts.  If  these  thoughts  are  clean, 
pure,  upUfting,  stimulating,  and  instructive  in  nature, 
we  should  pause  upon  them  and  such  all  the  life  out 
of  them. 

Let  a  student  sit  down  to  read.  Let  him  read  a 
sentence  slowly;  then  let  him  try  to  gi'asp  the  thought, 
and  think  it  over  intently.  One  thought  suggests  other 
thoughts.  Thus  let  him  think;  stretch  his  imagination 
in  connection  with  that  thought  as  far  as  possible,  and 
drop  it  onh'  when  he  has  found  a  clear-cut,  distinct  con- 
clusion. Let  him  thus  continue  for  fifteen  minutes. 
He  will  possibl}^  feel  quite  tired  at  the  end.  But  as  he 
continues  the  practice  of  deliberate  thinking,  he  will 
feel  a  new  assurance  of  power  awakening  in  his  mind. 
"Read  for  five  minutes ;  think  for  ten" — there  you  have 
the  whole  secret. 

The  above  practice  is  very  easy,  yet  most  valuable. 
It  will  expand  your  brain  and  unfold  your  Higher 
Consciousness. 

The  fact  is  there  is  too  little  manhood  in  men. 
Earnestness  of  the  right  sort  is  conspicuous  by  its  ab- 
sence. Such  things  as  spiritual  Unfoldment — the  con- 
quest of  self,  are  striven  after  by  but  few  men.  Hence 
when  they  resolve  upon  achieving  these,  the  initial 
difficulties  quench  their  ardour. 

First  of  all  we  must  idealise  these  Higher  Teachings, 
if  we  have  not  done  so  in  the  past.  We  must  love  them 
as  the  only  things  worthy  of  achievement.  It  is  not  the 
passion  of  selfish  growth  that  should  grip  us,  but  the 


24        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

flear,  cheerful  atmosphere  of  purity  that  should  be  our 
guide. 

Then  when  the  thoughts  of  mind  are  strung  up  to 
action  we  should  iind  nothing  difficult  of  achievement. 

Come  day,  go  day,  we  must  stick  to  our  resolve  like 
grim  death.  Nothing  can  crush  the  spirit,  when  it  has 
learned  to  recognise  itself. 

Hence  let  us  cherish,  nourish,  and  embellish  our 
Higher  Xature  by  taking  upon  our  shoulder  a  little  of 
the  heavy  Karma  of  the  world.  Let  us  do  all  that  we 
can  for  our  growth,  but  let  us  remember  that  selfishness 
when  it  develops  is  "like  a  serpent  that  warms  to  life 
by  the  heat  of  our  hands."  Do  not  then  nurse  this 
viper  iu  your  bosom.    Be  as  helpful  as  you  can. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 
man:    animal  and  divine. 

BY  the  side  of  the  Ganges,  close  to  the  Dashashu- 
medh  Ghat,  there  sits  a  man  of  nearly  seventy. 
He  is  stark  naked.  Clad  in  nature's  own  garb,  the 
Paramahamsa  remains  seated  in  one  place,  morning, 
noon  and  night. 

Look  at  his  face.  He  is  of  fair  complexion.  His 
forehead  rises  dome-like  above  his  eyes  which  are  clear, 
serene,  and  brilliant  with  soul-fire.  His  lips  have  a 
firm  set.  In  short,  his  calm  and  thoughtful  eyes,  noble 
forehead,  and  general  features  indicate  unruffled  calm- 
ness, great  self-control,  and   immense  will-power. 

For  more  than  eight  years  he  has  been  there.  In  the 
burning  mid-day  sun  of  June,  when  the  very  gi'ound 
seems  all  a-fire,  in  the  biting,  bitter  cold  of  December, 
he  sits  there.  People  flock  to  him  in  hundreds  daily, 
bring  food  enough  to  fill  at  least  thirty  stomachs,  bow 
to  him,  and  tell  him  their  many  griefs.  All  his  reply 
is  a  nod  of  his  head  and  a  look  from  his  eyes.  He  eats 
a  few  fruits  and  drinks  a  little  milk,  and  the  rest  of 
the  food  he  scatters  among  people  ever  ready  to  pick 
it  up.  He  never  talks,  never  laughs  or  even  smiles. 
His  face  is  always  solemn,  calm  and  rapt.     If  you  go 

26 


2fi        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

near  him  as  I  did,  you  feel  his  presence  at  once.  It  is 
at  once  a  magnetic,  powerful,  and  an  all-round  spiritual 
personality. 

Now  just  turn  from  this  Yogi, — for  he  is  nothing 
else — and  follow  me  to  the  fish-market.  I  have  been 
there  only  once,  but  I  will  tell  you  something  about  it. 

It  was  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning.  No  less  than 
five  hundred  men,  women  and  boys  were  there.  My 
first  feeling  was  one  of  extreme  nausea.  (There  was 
a  strong,  dirty,  abominable  smell  about  the  place.) 
The  fisher-men  had  brought  in  fine,  living,  leaping  fish 
in  their  nets.  They  started  by  taking  these  out  and 
beating  each  living  fish  dead  against  the  hard,  brick 
floor  of  the  market.  Squabbling,  haggling,  abusing, 
spitting  were  in  full  swing.  The  evil  stink  was  noth- 
ing to  them.  It  was  the  smell  of  the  rose-flower,  as  it 
were.    I  went  out;  rather,  ran  out. 

I  ?aw  many  men  and  women  coming  out,  their  hands 
full  of  the  dirty  stuff.  Young  men,  within  their  teens, 
were  there.  Their  eyes  were  pale  and  hollow,  their 
skins  hung  loose  upon  their  bones;  their  faces  denoted 
greed  and  lust.  I  saw  not  one  person  who  had  a 
healthy,  steady,  self-reliant  look;  they  seemed  like  a 
pack  of  beggars  who  had  stumbled  into  a  little  money 
which  they  must  spend  upon  fish. 

Indeed,  how  can  it  be  otherwise?  Now  comparing 
one  of  these  back-boneless  men  with  the  Saint,  what 
conclusion  do  you  draw? 

The  one  is  the  ANIMAL-MAN,  the  etl^er,  the 
DIVINE-MAN. 


MAX:  AMMAL  AND  DIVINE  27 

In  the  one  Fear,  Greed,  Lust,  Superstition  have  made 
their  home.  The  horrors  of  the  slaughter-house  do  not 
shock  him  at  all.  His  fleshy  coating  reflects  the  inner 
man  out  and  out.  His  senses  are  gross  and  coarse- 
fibred. 

In  the  other,  God  is  manifesting  Himself.  He  is 
proof  against  tlie  extreme  heat  and  cold,  lust  and  pas- 
sion. If  a  thunder-bolt  were  to  fall  upon  him,  he 
would  not  lose  his  calmness  even  for  the  fraction  of  a 
moment. 

Is  not  that  real  happiness?  To  realise  that  you  are 
not  the  body;  that  you  can  never  die;  that  nothing  can 
touch  you;  that  fire  cannot  burn  you;  the  sword  cannot 
pierce  you,  tlie  water  cannot  drown  you;  to  realise 
your  independence  of  and  mastery  over  the  flesh. 

This  is  the  true  mission  of  religion.  Religion  is 
being  and  becoming.  It  is  not  talk.  It  is  not  intel- 
lectualism.     It  is  not  worldism.     It  is  Life  and  Love. 

"God  is  Love."  Love  is  unselfish.  It  burns  for 
everyone.  It  does  not  come  easihj.  Only  when  we 
have  suffered  much,  thought  much, — then  and  then 
alone  gleams  of  this  Universal  Love  shine  upon  us. 
Tt  is  the  dawn  of  divinity — Spiritual  Awakening. 

A  time  comes  when  we  feel  this  truth,  and  sympathy 
for  the  sufferings  of  others  is  the  first  sign.  To  serve 
others  is  a  high  privilege.  God  grants  us  this  oppor- 
tunity for  cleansing  ourselves;  no  higher  step  can  be 
taken  unless  we  have  learnt  to  be  selfless  in  service. 


28        DEVELOPIXG  IS  PI  RITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Happiness  is  not  the  goal  of  life,  nor  is  enjoyment. 
Those  that  hunt  for  it  never  get  it.  God  is  the  goal 
of  life.  Eealising  Him  we  realise  happiness.  "Such 
is  the  power  of  good  that  even  the  least  done  brings  the 
gi'eatest  results." 

Obey  God,  serve  men.  Before  you  have  gone  far  in 
tins  vast  path,  peace  will  fold  its  wings  around  you. 
Fear  will  drop  away.     Worry  will  be  known  no  more. 

Therefore  train  yourself  to  serve  others,  if  only  one 
soul.  If  you  have  a  father,  a  mother,  or  some  one  else 
depending  upon  you,  serve  them  with  whole-hearted 
zeal.  Care  not  for  gratitude,  friend; — that  is  their 
business.  If  you  are  in  earnest — and  the  mere  fact  of 
your  reading  Yoga  proves  that  you  are  on  the  Higher 
Path — you  will  force  yourself  to  be  unselfish.  In  a 
short  time  your  Higher  Nature  will  assert  itself  and  it 
will  become  your  second  Nature. 

Let  us  learn  to  forget  our  troubles  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, for  these  are  not  permanent. 

"Shattered  be  Self,  Life  and  Hope.  I  will  try  my 
humble  best  to  help  others  witli  body,  brain,  and  soul ;" 
let  that  be  your  brave  cry.  I  am  with  you  in  this  and 
so  are  thousands  of  others. 

Each  man  is  a  channel  for  the  expression  of  God's 
truths.  As  we  evolve  from  within  outwards  we  con- 
form ourselves  to  the  reception  of  certain  gifts.  Each 
man  is  a  power  in  himself.  We  have  to  rise  to  our 
bes+  each  time  we  call  truths  out.  They  exist  in  us  po- 
tentially and  are  ever  seeking  an  outlet  for  right 
expression. 


MAN:  ANIMAL  AND  DIVINE  39 

It  rests  with  us  entirely  what  and  how  far  we  will 
unfold.     Fate  follows  us  only  so  long  as  we  fly  from  it. 

Contact  with  a  stronger  mind,  a  purer  heart,  is  de- 
cidedly to  our  advantage.  It  acts  as  a  push  upwards. 
You  may  be  poor  in  riches,  but  you  may  be  rich  in 
God's  greatest  gift — purity  in  word,  deed  and  thought. 

You  are  as  great  as  any  one,  mark  you.  Daily  you 
have  to  light  the  Lamp  of  Light  Eternal  in  the  secret 
chamber  of  your  heart.  Right  knowledge  with  its 
right  exercise  will  wipe  out  your  misery,  which  is  igno- 
rance— the  greatest  enemy  of  man.  Eemember,  knowl- 
edge is  within  you  and  never  outside. 

Let  me  advise  you  to  read  sacred  things  and  then 
reflect  upon  them.  Study  the  feelings  and  thoughts 
that  arise  within  you.  Lea^•e  the  faults  of  others  alone. 
Look  upwards  but  never  look  down  upon  your  inferiors. 

If  you  study  and  meditate,  if  you  analyse  yourself 
honestly,  you  sliall  surely  bury  all  your  weakness  in 
the  Light  of  knowledge.  You  will  rise  to  the  highest 
level  of  godliness  in  time. 

LIVE  UP  TO  IT.  If  you  fail,  rise  again,  and 
again  and  yet  again.  Assert  yourself;  and  strength 
will  surely  come. 

Sincere  in  your  wish,  strong  in  your  resolve,  nothing 
can  stand  in  your  path.  Once  again  I  say  Look  ever 
upwards  and  onwards. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DOUBLE    CONSCIOUSNESS. 

rr^HE  ancients  had  a  most  significant  concept  as  to 
■*■  the  intellectual  make-up  of  Man,  and  before  we 
proceed  with  our  personal  remarks  on  this  topic,  we 
shall  try  to  give  our  readers  just  a  passing  glimpse  of 
their  view  point.  Says  Aristotle:  "There  are  in  the 
fact  of  our  knowledge  two  elements  analogous  to  mat- 
ter and  form  i.  e.,  a  passive  principle  and  an  active 
principle;  in  other  words,  there  are  two  kinds  of  Intel- 
lect, the  one  material  or  passive  and  the  other  formal 
or  active,  the  one  capable  of  becoming  all  things  by 
thinking  on  them,  the  other  making  things  intelligible. 
That  which  acts  is  necessarily  superior  to  that  which 
suffers;  consequently  that  active  intellect  is  superior  to 
the  potential  one.  The  active  intellect  is  separate,  im- 
passable and  imperishable;  the  passive  intellect  on  the 
contrary  is  perishable  and  cannot  do  without  the  active 
intellect.  Therefore  the  veritable  intellect  is  the 
Separate  Intellect  and  this  intellect  alone  is  eternal 
and  immortal."  Dr.  Nishikanta  commenting  on  this 
passage,  says:  "The  function  of  this  passive  intellect 
is  to  receive  all  the  data  of  sensation  and  that  of  the 
Active  Intellect  is  to  collect  and  compare,  and  by  anal- 

80 


DOUBLE  COXSCIOVSNESS  81 

3'sis  and  synthesis  to  raise  those  sensuous  or  sensorious 
data  to  ideas  and  conceptions." 

Now,  I  suppose,  I  miglit  explain  it  in  the  light  of 
modern  psychology  somewhat  in  this  way :  The  senses, 
namel}',  touch,  taste,  smell,  sight  and  hearing,  together 
with  the  nervous  systems,  form  the  various  lines  of 
communication  between  the  Ego  and  the  non-ego,  be- 
tween the  Self  and  the  not-self,  between  purusha — to 
use  the  technicality  of  our  Sankaya  Philosophy — and 
Prakiriti.  The  plastic  mind  of  the  child,  like  the  pho- 
tographer's sensitized  plate  is  exposed  to  stimuli  from 
the  external  world.  Impressions  from  outside — the 
environmental  conditions,  i.  e.,  the  times,  circumstances, 
and  various  other  surrounding  influences — impinge 
upon  the  mind  and  various  combinations  of  brain-cells 
are  formed.  Eegistrations  are  enforced  by  further  and 
further  combinations,  and  the  continued  influx  of  im- 
pressions tend  to  the  definite  shaping  of  these  brain-cells, 
according  as  one  set  of  impressions  corresponds  with 
another  and  so  on,  till,  in  time,  varying  sets  of  group- 
cells  are  formed  resulting  in  habits.  The  sum  total  of 
these  impressions  establishes  itself  in  the  mind  of  the 
child  as  tastes,  likes  and  dislikes,  inclinations  and  pred- 
ilections. Their  relative  merits  or  demerits  must  be 
traced  to  the  moulding  influence  of  the  early  impres- 
sions. The  child  with  the  widening  of  its  knowledge 
distinguishes  between  pleasurable  and  painful  im- 
pressions. The  child  with  the  painful  impressions, 
connects  past  with  present,  rejects  painful  ini])re>sion,-. 


82       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

accepts  pleasurable  ones  and  thus  learning  to  identify 
impressions  by  repetition,  develops  memory.  Thus 
sensation  produced  thought;  for,  "Mind,  as  we  know  it, 
is  resolvable  into  states  of  consciousness,  of  varying 
duration,  intensity,  complexity,  etc.,  all,  in  the  ulti- 
mate, resting  on  Sensation"  (Secret  Doctrine).  The 
repetition  of  vibrations,  by  attraction  and  repulsion  to 
pleasurable  and  painful  sensations  developed  memory. 
The  contemplation  of  the  images  mirrored  in  the  mind 
produced  knowledge,  discrimination  and  reason;  the 
desire  to  change  from  one  state  to  another  led  to  the 
manifestation  of  Will  or  energy,  the  inter-play  of 
tliought  and  desire  gave  birth  to  emotion. 

Thus,  however  crudely  put,  we  may  for  the  nonce 
take  it  that  the  concrete  mind  with  the  physical  brain 
as  its  organic  base  of  operation  is  the  passive  intellect 
transmitting  sensations  to  the  thinker,  who  reasons  upon 
same  in  his  own  sphere  and  who  hence  forms  the 
centre  of  the  Active  Intellect.  The  passive  mind  is  so 
much  matter  appropriated  from  the  not-self,  for  cer- 
tain purposes.  It  is  alive  or  seems  so  because  the  ego 
works  in  and  through  it.  Averros,  the  great  commen- 
tator on  Aristotle  has  made  it  all  very  clear:  "The 
Passive  Intellect  aspires  to  unite  with  the  Active  In- 
tellect as  the  potential  calls  for  the  Actual,  as  the  mat- 
ter calls  for  the  form,  or  as  the  flame  rushes  for  the 
combustible  body.  But  the  effect  is  not  confined  to  the 
first  degree  of  possession  only,  called  the  acquired  in- 
tellect.    The  Soul  can  arrive  at  a  much  more  intimate 


DOUBLE  CONSCIOUSNESS  33 

uDion  with  the  universal  intellect  at  a  sort  of  identifica- 
tion, with  Primordial  Reason.  The  acquired  intellect  has 
served  to  lead  man  up  to  the  sanctuary  but  it  disappears 
as  that  object  has  been  gained,  very  nearly  as  sensation 
prepares  the  way  for  imagination  and  disappears  as 
soon  as  the  act  of  Imagination  is  too  intense.  In  this 
way,  the  active  intelligence  exercises  on  the  soul  two 
distinct  influences,  of  which  the  one  has  for  its  object, 
to  elevate  the  material  or  passive  intellect  to  a  percep- 
tion of  Intelligibles,  while  that  of  the  other  is  to  draw 
it  further  up  to  a  union  with  the  Intelligibles  them- 
selves. Arrived  at  this  state  man  understands  all  things 
by  the  Eeason  he  appropriated  to  himself.  Having 
become  similar  to  God,  he  is  in  a  certain  sense  all  the 
beings  that  exist  and  knows  them  as  they  really  are; 
because  the  being  and  their  causes  are  nothing  beyond 
the  knowledge  that  he  possesses  of  them.  There  is  in 
every  being  a  tendency  to  receive  as  much  of  this  final- 
ity as  suits  his  nature.  Even  the  animal  shares  it  and 
bears  in  itself  the  potentiality  of  arriving  at  this  Be- 
ing." The  Higher  Mind  or  the  Active  Intellect  in  each 
individual  is  a  ray  from  the  Universal  Mind  and  since 
that  is  the  common  source,  all  minds  are  resolvable  into 
One  Mind: — the  varying  types  of  mentality  between 
man  and  man  being  really  due  to  changing  cycles  of  race- 
evolution  in  varying  environments. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SPIRITUAL    DXFOLDMENT. 

THE  heart  of  man  pants  for  many  things.  Desire 
moves  man  more  than  aught  else.  Passions  may 
lash  np  the  lake  of  his  mind  into  a  thousand  pulsations ; 
grief  may  burn  the  iron  of  despair  right  into  his  brain, 
and  make  him  feel  as  one  stranded;  all  his  emotions 
and  feelings  may  play  upon  him ;  the  world  outside  may 
fasten  its  grip  upon  him,  toss  him  up  from  pillar  to 
post  and  beat  him  flat ; — yet  the  impress  left  by  these  is 
sooner  or  later  wiped  out  and  man  rises  to  his  feet  once 
more.  But  not  so  the  iron  grip  of  desire.  It  holds  on 
to  him  like  grim  death.  It  drags  out  the  soul  minute 
after  minute  of  our  existence,  electrifies  the  unwilling 
hand  to  exertion  and  stimulates  the  brain  to  accom- 
plish its  ends. 

From  the  hoary,  venerable  sage,  standing  triumphant 
upon  the  heights  of  spirituality,  down  to  the  most  ani- 
malized,  coarsened  man — the  Bushman,  the  Central 
African  savage — this  phenomenon  makes  itself  clearly 
visible  to  the  observant  eye. 

iSTow,  there  come  moments  in  our  lives,  when  even  the 
greatest  money-spinners ;  the  most  persistent  pleasure- 
hunters,  turn  aside  from  their  usual  occupations  to  listen 

34 


SPIRITUAL   UNFOLDMENT  36 

to  a  voice  within  them  which  is  constantly  asking, 
"Man,  where  art  thou  from?  Where  art  thou  drifting 
along?  To  what  end  is  all  this? — Money,  wife,  chil- 
dren, and  all  that  you  hold  next  to  your  heart.  "What 
has  a  man  gained,  if  he  has  gained  the  whole  world 
and  lost  his  soid?" 

These  and  similar  other  questions  beat  upon  our 
brains  in  spite  of  all  our  contrary  partialities,  our  thor- 
ough worldism. 

All  this  unrest  and  discomfort  is  quite  in  the  nature 
of  things.  Man  cannot  always  be  building  mud-pies 
and  swallowing  ''goldpills.'"'  Something  more  abiding, 
more  permanent,  is  wanted.  This  yearning  after  the 
Eternal  makes  us  call  a  halt  upon  the  pursuit  of  blind 
passions,  the  hunt  after  pleasure, — which  is  the  van- 
ishing point  between  satiety  and  reaction. 

The  son  wants  to  be  united  to  the  Father,  his  primal 
source.  God  becomes  an  indispensable  necessity. 
AVithout  Him,  life  seems  to  be  a  dance  after  fleeting 
sliadows.  Each  word  of  advice,  of  guidance  and  of 
spiritual  help  comes  as  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  the 
tliirsting  soul. 

Life  is  simplicity  itself.  It  is  governed  everywhere 
hy  One  Life,  One  Law,  One  Word, — such  is  the  grand 
teaching  of  the  Ancients.  And  as  we,  by  knowledge, 
experience  and  observation,  get  a  clearer  grasp  of  this 
doctrine  of  Unity,  we  approach  Truth. 

As  our  vision  of  God  grows  moi'e  and  more  distinct, 
Life  with  it=  million,  niillion  tongues,  seems  all  music. 


88        DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Fear  is  sloughed  off  like  a  dead  skin.  Peace,  poise  and 
power  are  all  attracted  to  us  by  the  subtle  magnetism 
of  pure  thoughts.  Man  eyes  man  with  Love,  Compas- 
sion and  Pity.  The  fibres  of  the  mind  have  grown  too 
finely  strung  to  stand  the  shock  of  evil  thoughts  and 
desires,  and  these  latter  fly  ofE  from  the  keenly  vibrant 
mind.     Listen  to  Yogi  Eamacharaka: 

"From  this  point  you  will  gradually  develop  into 
that  consciousness  which  assures  you  that  when  you  say 
"I"  you  do  not  speak  of  the  individual  entity  with  all 
its  power  and  strength  but  know  that  the  "I"  has  be- 
hind it  the  power  and  strength  of  the  spirit  and  is 
connected  with  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  force,  which 
may  be  drawn  upon  when  needed.  Such  an  one  can 
never  experience  Fear — for  he  has  risen  far  above  it. 
Fear  is  the  manifestation  of  weakness  and,  so  long  as 
we  hug  it  to  us  and  make  a  bosom  friend  of  it,  we  will 
be  open  to  the  influence  of  others.  But  by  casting 
aside  Fear  me  taJce  several  steps  upwards  in  the  scale. 
.  .  .  When  man  learns  that  nothing  can  really  harm 
him.  Fear  seems  a  folly.  And  when  man  awakens  to 
a  realisation  of  his  real  nature  and  destiny,  he  knows 
that  nothing  can  harm  him  and  consequently  Fear  is 
discarded. 

"It  has  been  well  said,  "There  is  nothing  to  fear 
but  fear."  .  .  .  The  abolition  of  Fear  places  in  the 
hands  of  man  a  weapon  of  defence  and  power  which  ren- 
ders him  almost  invincible.  Why  do  you  not  take  this 
gift  which  is  so  freely  offered  you?  Let  your  watch- 
words be  "I  am ;"  "I  am  fearless  and  free." 


SPIRITUAL  UNFOLDMENT  87 

The  italics  are  mine.  It  is  a  lengthy  quotation  but 
each  word  will  repay  perusal. 

Thus  we  see  that  "Spiritual  Unfoldment"  means  a 
gradual  stripping  off  of  the  dense  and  subtle  sheaths  in 
which  man  is  clothed  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
spirit. 

WTiat  is  the  Spirit?  I  can  give  you  but  a  very  poor 
idea.  The  spirit  is  the  highest  principle,  the  most 
sublime  attribute  of  Man.  According  to  the  teachings 
of  advanced  occultists  and  the  great  sages  of  India. 
Man  is  a  sevenfold  creature;  is  also  in  seven  sheaths; 
manifests  on  seven  planes  of  being. 

These  are  according  to  Yogi  Iiamacharaka's  classifi- 
cation: 7  Spirit;  6  Spiritual  mind;  5  Intellect;  4 
Instinctive  Mind ;  3  Prana,  Vital  Force ;  2  Astral  Body ; 
1  physical  body. 

Few,  almost  none  of  the  present  race,  have  achieved 
the  seventh  principle.  The  spirit  in  man  is  a  spark 
from  the  Divine  Flame.  It  establishes  a  psychic  con- 
nection, if  I  may  so  put  it,  between  Man  and  the  Ab- 
solute. The  noblest  of  men,  the  most  wonderful  geni- 
uses, the  most  brilliant  master-minds,  were  the  for- 
tunate recipients  of  a  few  flashes  of  the  spirit,  which 
is  the  Invincible  Controlling  Power  in  Man.  In  mo- 
ments of  deep  abstraction,  tlie  human  consciousness, 
if  concentrated  upon  high  ends,  finds  messages  from 
the  Spirit  flash  downwards,  like  a  streak  of  lightning; 
and  the  world  is  startled  by  the  revelation. 

As  I  have  remarked  before,  Man   is  not   a   finished 


38        DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

product  of  nature.  He  is  a  developing  creature.  He 
has  to  master  all  these  sheaths  and  realise  the  spirit 
within — Himself. 

It  is  a  long  and  serious  task.  Those  that  take  it  up 
consciously,  undertake  the  most  tr}dng  task  of  life. 
Yet  we  are  all  going  that  way. 

Here  are  three  words : — Instinct,  Reason,  Intuition. 
These  are  the  three  phases  of  mind,  from  the  lowest 
up  to  the  highest.  They  develop  into  each  other.  In- 
stinct dovetails  into  Reason,  and  Eeason  into  Intuition. 
Let  us  consider  them   categorically. 

The  instinct  is  a  subconscious  intelligence.  There 
is  a  self-preserving  imnciple  of  the  mind.  The  animal 
world  illustrates  this.  One  animal  fights  another,  kills 
another,  to  maintain  its  life.  The  duckling  rushes  to 
the  water  as  its  natural  element ;  the  newly-fledged  bird 
wants  to  be  on  the  wing;  the  child  seeks  the  mother's 
breast  as  its  source  of  nourishment ;  our  feet  run  away 
with  us  in  moments  of  peril  in  spite  of  ourselves; — 
it  is  all  Instinct.  The  various  work  of  the  body,  di- 
gestion, assimilation,  tissue  change,  etc.,  are  all  carried 
on  along  this  subconscious  line  of  mentation.  Passion 
is  said  to  be  hlind,  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  Instinct. 

This  lowest  phase  of  the  mind  is  most  developed  in 
man.     It  has  no  reason,  no  volition. 

As  man  grows,  he  begins  to  think,  to  compare  himself 
with  others,  to  analyse  things,  to  classify,  to  judge,  and 
so  on.  This  is  Reason.  It  is  the  Intellect,  with  the 
conscious  entity,  "I"  as  its  monarch.     The  baby  ego, 


SPIRITUAL   rXFOLDMENT  39 

the  hitherto  sleeping  ?oiil,  begins  to  wake  up  at  its 
magic  toiiL-h.  The  irUl  becomes  rationalized.  It  shows 
itself  by  assertions,  demands  and  commands. 

Througli  the  intellect  man  learns  to  recognize  his 
developing  manhood.  His  self-consciousness,  the  "/ 
am"  consciousness,  expands  and  learns  to  regard  him- 
self as  a  distinct,  living,  reasoning  being. 

The  intellect  controls  the  Instinctive  mind.  It 
checks  it  from  picking  up  suggestions  dropped  by 
others.  Th.e  will  as  it  develops  swings  brain  and  body, 
the  ''lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  the  pride  of 
life"  round  to  its  own  mandates.  The  half  developed 
intellect  is  a  source  of  misery.  It  sends  fear  thoughts, 
adverse  suggestions,  into  the  Instinctive  Mind,  which, 
slave-like,  carries  out  orders  blindly. 

Into  the  Intellect,  when  it  has  touched  its  zenith 
shades  the  Spiritual  ]\Iind,  Intuition.  Intuition  passes 
beyond,  transcends  the  intellect.  It  is  the  "Super-con- 
scious Mind.''  All  that  is  considered  noble  and  lofty 
in  the  mind  comes  from  the  spiritual  mind.  The 
"brotherhood"  of  man  and  the  "fatherhood"  of  God: 
"True  religious  feelings,  kindness,  humanity,  justice, 
unselfish  love,  mercy,  sympathy,  etc.,  come  to  us 
through  slowly  unfolding  spiritual  mind." 

Intuition  is  tlie  highest  phase  of  the  human  mind. 
It  sees  truth  by  direct  perception.  It  is  the  seat  of 
prophesy,  inspiration  and  spiritual  insight.  As  the 
mind  becomes  calm  and  controlled,  rays  of  light  pene- 
trate it  from  the  realms  of  the  spirit.     Prophesy,  the 


40       DEVELOPIlsG  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

intuitive  perception  of  some  future  event,  often  shows 
itself.  It  is  a  faculty  which  belongs  to  the  spiritual 
side  of  consciousness.  It  is  superior  to  our  physical, 
astral  and  mental  selves.  It  transcends  the  human 
and  shades  into  the  Divine. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  a  crude  conception  of  Spiritual  Un- 
foldment.  It  does  scant  justice  to  this  subject,  yet  it 
may  go  to  throw  some  light  on  some  dark  problems. 

Man  is  not  a  sack  of  flesh,  blood  and  bones.  "We  are 
all  of  us  traveling  God-wards.  We  have  not  been  born 
to  dance  to  the  orders  of  others;  nor  is  enjoyment  the 
aim  of  life. 

Some  people,  who  have  developed  a  little  intellect, 
regard  themselves  as  the  creme  de  la  creme  of  the  uni- 
verse. "We  are  in  a  higher  sphere."  Such  is  the 
blindness  of  conceit.  Those  that  cultivate  such  ideas 
will  find  the  ground  cut  from  under  their  feet. 

Let  us  pick  out  our  line  of  action  carefully.  Let 
us  not  go  into  society  an  Ishmael  with  our  hand  raised 
against  every  one.  Selfish,  grasping  men  are  the  most 
unhappy  of  the  whole  lot  of  us.  Harm  watch,  harm 
catch. 

None  of  us  are  spotless.  If  there  is  any  one  who 
repels  us,  let  us  not  hate  him.  There  is  nothing  to 
hate  hut  hatred. 

Wisdom  and  an  understanding  of  our  place  in  the 
vast  cosmic  Evolution  alone  can  rob  Death  of  its  terrors. 

The  warm,  living  impulses  of  the  heart,  if  carried 


SPIRITUAL   UyPOLDMENT  41 

out,  will  surely  work  for  our  upliftment.  Religion  is 
life.  Its  mission  is  to  take  the  animal-man  out  of  the 
divine-man  and  set  us  free  from  this  cage  of  flesh. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CAUSE    AND    EFFECT. 

"D  Y  your  great  enemy  I  mean  yourself.  If  you  have 
the  power  to  face  your  Own  Soul  in  the  darkness 
and  silence,  you  will  have  conquered  the  physical  or 
Animal-Self  that  dwells  in  sensation  only." — "Light 
on  the  Path." 

The  above  sentence  embodies  in  a  nutshell  the  very 
cream  of  the  Yoga  Philosophy.  It  is  the  quintessence 
of  Occultism.  'The  lips  of  wisdom  are  closed  except 
to  the  ears  of  understanding.'  You  who  read  this  will 
profit  thereby  only  if  you  are  bent  upon  spiritualising 
yourself.  The  One  Thing  that  I  want  of  you  is  Ear- 
nestness :  not  the  earnestness  of  a-small-pot-soon-hot 
style,  but  one  deep,  abiding  and  constant  impulsion  that 
shall  compel  your  being  right  through  life.  There  is 
a  widespread  impression  amongst  those  of  the  West 
that  the  Yogi  is  fit  only  for  the  lunatic  asylum.  But 
before  you  so  clap  them  into  Bedlam,  please  read,  mark, 
and  inwardly  digest  this  lesson  and  judge  it  on  its 
merits  alone.  "N"ever  utter  these  words  'I  do  not  know 
this  thing,  therefore  it  is  not  true.'  One  must  study 
to  know,  know  to  understand,  and  understand  to 
judge."     The  man  whose  thoughts  are  matter-bound, 

42 


CAUSE  AND  EFFECT  43 

is  treading  upon  beds  of  quicksand.  He  is  sitting  upon 
a  mine  that  may  explode  any  moment.  The  onh-  safe 
course  is  the  Life  of  the  Spirit.  Tliose  that  lead  this 
life  seem  to  live  and  breathe  in  quite  a  different  spliere. 
They  are  the  true  Yogis; — tlie  iirst  fruits  of  humanity. 
In  matters  of  Self-discipline  they  neither  spare  them- 
selves nor  others  that  woidd  learn  at  their  feet.  To 
those  moles  that  are  still  burrowing  into  the  mud  their 
methods,  ever  drastic,  appear  far-fetched.  But  tliis  is 
emphatically  not  so.  Tlie  Yogi  is  tlioroughly  rational. 
He  has  a  profound  intellect.  He  is  the  picture  of 
health.  He  is  full  of  kindness  and  pity.  He  is  ever 
self-sacrificing,  ever  strong  and  as  to  chastity,  he  is  the 
very  emhodinient  of  it; — lie  simply  radiates  purity. 
Wherever  the  Yogi  goes  he  seems  to  cleanse  the  very 
atmosphere  of  the  place  by  his  meie  presence.  He  is 
calm,  serene,  and  even-minded.  He  has  almost  super- 
hum^an  self-control.  In  the  moment  of  action,  he  is 
the  man  of  cool  ner\f-,  of  level  head,  and  great  pene- 
trating concentration. 

One  mental  scientist  in  America  puts  health  upon 
the  heights.  Wliy?  Simply  because  there  are  fifty 
millions  there  who  are  disease-ridden  and  many  a  suf- 
fering one  is  a  MorituriLS  i.  e.,  at  the  point  of  death. 
This  is  the  result  of  nifiterialism.  The  gods  have  put 
their  ban  upon  it.  "Seek  ye  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
and  all  else  shall  be  added  unto  thee."  This  is  the  tre- 
mendous advice  of  the  Supreme  Master. 

The  higher  life  is  the  only  life  that  is  worth  living. 


44        DE\  ELOi'IXG  SPIRITUAL  CO^'SC'WUSXESS 

All  else  is  mere  touch-and-go.  Now  one  great  secret  of 
success  was  enunciated  by  a  perfect  Yogi.  It  is  the 
greatest  I  know.  I  am  fully  convinced  of  its  potent 
force.    Let  me  give  it  to  you : 

Join  the  means  to  the  end,  and  you  have  the  sum- 
total;  the  objective;  the  goal  that  you  are  striving  for 
and  aiming  at.  The  result  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the  in- 
tensity of  the  effort.  The  greater  the  effort,  the  greater 
the  result.  There  is  an  ever-continuing,  never-slack- 
ening tension  of  this  spiritual  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
of  sowing  and  reaping.  We  only  get  what  we  deserve; 
— not  an  iota  more  or  less.  The  gods  hold  the  scales 
evenly  and  Nature  deals  in  even-handed  justice.  No 
honest  seeking  ever  goes  unrewarded.  We  have  to  per- 
fect the  means.  We  have  to  adjust  efforts  to  obstacles. 
If  the  action  is  incoordinate,  so  shall  be  the  result. 
Give  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you.  Everything  is  in 
a  circle.  What  tve  do,  that  we  have.  In  taking  all 
possible  care  of  the  means,  you  are  simply  starting  cur- 
rents of  force  into  activity.  These  must  complete  the 
circuit  and  come  back  to  you,  the  centre,  in  time. 
Therefore  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  work,  work,  and 
work.  The  results  cannot  but  come.  Your  body  is 
so  constituted  that  it  renews  itself  after  each  exertion : 
with  each  fresh  effort,  there  is  a  corresponding  inrush 
of  force.  He  who  works  his  hardest,  has  the  most  en- 
ergy. Energy  is  ever  withdrawn  from  those  that 
would  spend  same  with  a  niggardly  hand.  The  supply 
is  exactly  in  proportion  to  the  exhaust.     It  is  the  pres- 


CAUSE  AND  EFFECT  46 

sure  at  which  we  live  that  counts  most.  Life  is  unnec- 
essarily long; — only,  so  much  time  we  spend  in  vege- 
tating rather  than  living.  For  only  the  spiritual  man 
can  appreciate  the  fine  art  of  living.  As  a  great 
thinker  said :  We  ask  for  long  life,  but  'tis  deep  life, 
or  grand  moments,  that  signify.  Life  culminates  and 
concentrates.  Homer  said  "The  gods  ever  give  to  mor- 
tals their  appointed  share  of  reason  only  on  one  day." 

"Just  to  fill  the  hour — ^that  is  happiness.  Fill  my 
hour  ye  gods,  so  that  I  shall  not  say,  Whilst  I  have  done 
this,  Behold,  also  an  hour  of  my  life  is  gone,'  but  rather, 
*I  have  lived  an  hour.'  " 

"In  stripping  time  of  its  illusions,  in  seeking  to  find 
what  is  the  heart  of  the  day,  we  come  to  the  quality  of 
the  moment  and  drop  the  duration  altogether.  It  is 
the  depth  at  which  we  live  and  not  at  all  the  surface 
extension,  that  imports.  We  pierce  to  the  eternity  of 
which  time  is  the  fitting  surface;  and  really  the  least 
acceleration  of  thought  and  the  least  increase  of  power 
of  thought,  make  life  to  seem  and  to  be  of  vast  dura- 
tion. We  call  it  time,  hiit  when  that  acceleration  and 
that  deepening  effect  talce  place,  it  acquires  another 
higher  name; — Eternity." 

"God  works  in  moments." 

"The  measure  of  life,  0  Socrates,  is  luith  the  wise; — 
the  speaJcing  and  hearing  such  discourses  as  yours." 

"There  is  no  real  happiness  in  this  life  hut  in  inie^,- 
lect  and  virtue." 

"It  is  the  deep   today   that  all  men  scorn,  the  rich 


4«        DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  C0N8CI0USNE88 

puverty  which  men  hate;  the  poimlous,  all-loving  soli- 
tude which  men  quit  for  the  tattle  of  towns.  He  lurks, 
he  hides; — he  who  is  Success,  Reality,  Joy  and  Power. 
One  of  the  illusions  is  that  the  present  hour  is  not  the 
critical  hour,  the  decisive  moment.  Write  it  on  your 
heart  that  every  day  is  the  best  day  in  the  year.  No  man 
has  learned  anything  rightly  until  he  knows  that  every 
day  is  Doomsday.  'Tis  the  oldest  secret  of  the  gods 
that  they  come  in  low  disguises." 

"Nature  shows  herself  lest  in  leasts." 

The  above  are  just  a  few  thoughts  to  convince  you 
that  each  stroke,  each  swing  of  tlie  Will,  each  moment 
of  utter  devotion  to  the  means,  each  hour  of  day,  uncon- 
genial labor,  each  spell  of  painful,  patient  concentra- 
tion shall  count  in  the  Eternal  Summation. 

Hence  pay  homage  to  and  worship  the  means.  Hon- 
our the  present  moment.  Set  up  the  strong  Present 
Tense  against  all  else.  The  present  moment  is  the 
crystalisation  of  the  Past.  Build  into  the  structure  of 
the  Fast  the  richest  and  finest  materials,  vitalize  it  with 
the  rich,  red,  life-hlood  of  youth,  and  surely,  most  sure- 
ly, the  spirit  shall  shine  out  in  all  its  columnar  majesty. 
Your  Past  is  laden  with  the  cumidative  force  of 
thoughts,  desires  and  actions.  Everything  turns  upon 
how  you.  have  lived  in  the  past. 

How  cramped,  how  down-trodden,  how  sorrow-laden, 
how  miserable,  how  low,  mean,  and  hard-hearted  and 
cruel  we  men  and  women  are  I 

It  all  seems  to  have  been  ground  in  witli  our  life- 


CAUSE  AXD  EFFECT  47 

force.  Stop  right  now,  now,  and  examine  yourself  in 
the  clear  light  of  tlie  intellect.  Ten  to  one,  you 
shudder  at  your  hideous  weaknesses,  that  darken  and 
defile  your  Nature. 

"What  I  would  that  I  do  not;  what  I  would  not,  that 
I  do."  "IF/ten  /  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  loith 
me." 

This  is  the  tale  of  the  age.  It  is  a  staggering  blow 
to  one's  optimism.  It  dampens  one's  spirits.  It 
plunges  one  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  despair.  Stand- 
ing by  men  steeped  to  their  lips  in  weaknesses,  one 
turns  inwards  and  doubtingly  says  "Am  I  really 
Strong?" 

"/  failed."  Why?  "Because,  sir,  you  neglected  the 
MEANS  and  simply  killed  your  time  in  spinning  aii'y 
tvehs.  You  did  not  throw  in  your  heart  and  soul. 
Here  is  the  cause  and  cure  of  failure.  In  our  struggles 
to  cheat  Nature,  we  simply  cheat  ourselves.  In  trying 
to  drown  the  voice  of  conscience,  we  simply  sink  our- 
selves. In  trying  to  follow  tlie  eat-drink-and-be-merry 
policy  we  simply  retard  our  own  inner  unfoldment. 

Please  remember  therefore: — All  Yogis  are  tremen- 
dous causationists.  There  is  method  in  their  madness. 
They  believe  in  methodical  and  persistent  work.  They 
say  with  me  in  effect: — 

"Marshal  your  forces  properly  and  powerfully  and 
access  is  sure." 

I3  it  not  meet  that  we  turn  to  something  permanent, 
something    that    will    live    through    the    ages,    some- 


48       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

thing  that  will  be  a  powerful  lever  to  uplift,  inspire, 
and  ennoble  others? 

"It  is!  It  is!"  that's  what  you  say. 

To  be  able  to  appreciate  greatness  at  its  full  value, 
we  must  ourselves  have  the  germs  of  greatness  stirring 
within  us.  The  power  of  the  spirit  is  struggling  to  un- 
coil itself.  Your  being  vibrates  to  the  thrills  of  spirit- 
ual forces.  Your  complex  though  confused  ideas  re- 
garding your  mission,  your  Divine  Heritage,  your  birth- 
right, are  shooting  into  order.  The  pressure  of  your 
chains  is  telling  upon  your  nerves.  Your  sufferings, 
your  little  independent  twists  and  angles  and  blind 
gropings  are  the  promises  of  your  future. 

Intensify  yourself  then  along  these  channels.  Carry 
these  thoughts  constantly  with  you.  Make  them 
the  part,  nay,  the  whole,  of  your  lives.  They  shall  fit 
in  everywhere.  Ever  they  ring  true.  I  hear  this  com- 
plaint from  many  men.  "I  am  deeply  impressed  when 
I  read  these  things  or  when  you  talk  of  them  to  us.  I 
am  full  of  noble  resolves.  I  feel  quite  different  from 
hum-drum  humanity.  But  alas !  tlie  impression  wears 
off  as  soon  as  the  world  demands  my  attention." 

That  shows  positively  that  the  latter  compels  your 
nature.  The  superficial  glamour  of  worldism  claims 
you  for  its  own  as  Mephistopheles  claimed  Faust.  Your 
carnal  and  sex-sensational  tendencies  occupy  the  "prin- 
cipal seats"  in  your  nature.  Your  talk  of  the  Higher 
Life  is  vapory  in  the  extreme;  you  are  like  Clarence 
.Glyndon  in  Lytton's  "Zanoni:" — "TJnsustained  Aspira- 


CAUSE  ASD  EFFECT  49 

tion"  would  follow  instinct,  hut  is  deterred  by  con- 
ventionalism— 15  overawed  by  idealism,  yet  attracted 
and  transieyitly  inspired;  but  has  not  steadiness  for  the 
initiatory  contemplation  of  the  Actual.  He  conjoins 
its  snatched  privileges  with  a  besetting  sensualism  and 
suffers  at  once  from  the  horror  of  the  one  and  the  dis- 
gust, involving  the  Innocent  (others)  in  the  fatal  con- 
flict of  his  spirit:"  (Mirror  of  young  manhood.) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MAN — THE    MASTER. 

MEN  are  going  up  an  ascending  scale  of  exist- 
ence. Some  have  their  feet  still  planted  upon 
the  lowest  rungs  of  the  ladder.  Others  have  climbed 
higher  and  higher. 

At  the  start,  the  functions  of  life  are  all  performed 
upon  a  semiconscious  plane.  The  law  of  life  is  for 
progress,  struggle,  achievement  and  realization.  The 
force  of  this  law  swings  the  physical  and  mental  mech- 
anism of  Man  to  its  own  beneficent  purpose  and  pro- 
pels them  to  action.  Progress  at  this  stage  is  on  the 
sub-conscious  plane  of  mentation. 

The  soul  is  in  a  comatose  condition.  Impacts  from 
the  physical  world,  the  driving  power  of  the  law  of 
Progress — Evolution, — and  the  inherent  powers  of  the 
soul,  all  combine  to  push  us  on. 

Man's  central  Being  is  infinite  bliss.  I  am  Happi- 
ness itself.  I  am  unhappy  because  my  eyes  have  grown 
blind. 

Yes,  Man  has  forgotten  his  real,  divine  Xature.  Cy- 
cle after  cycle  of  activity  thus  goes  on.  Man  is  being 
worked  upon  by  a  Divine  Law  whose  stem  mandate  is 
"AwaTce,  Arise,  and  Stop  not  till  the  goal  is  reached." 

50 


MAX— THE  MAtiTEli  51 

Not  all  of  us  hear  it  thus.  The  pious  Christian  de- 
voutly believes,  "Oh,  There  is  an  Evil  Force,  Satan, 
whose  arm  strikes  me  down.  Good  Lord,  Thou  alone 
art  my  refuge." 

In  praying  thus  he  believes  in  the  Infinite  power  of 
the  absolute;  and  since  nothing  is  lost  in  the  economy 
of  Nature,  he  delivers  a  concentrated  suggestion  to  his 
soul,  which  alone  is  Infinite.  He  believes  that  his 
prayer  will  bear  fruit,  and  it  does.  In  believing  he  de- 
livers the  right  blow  and  his  belief  is  fulfilled. 

It  is  a  very  good  thing  to  pray ;  to  believe  that  Provi- 
dence is  always  playing  with  your  destiny,  to  believe 
that  a  mighty  Mephistopheles  is  laying  traps  for  you,  to 
believe  that  the  body  dying,  the  soul  does  not  die,  to 
believe  that  God  alone  can  save  you. 

The  good  side  of  it  lies  in  your  repulsion  of  Evil. 
Fear  and  at  times  love  of  the  Infinite  make  you  cleave 
to  good. 

But  do  not  stop  there.  Your  attitude  is  out  and  out 
a  negative  one.  You  cannot  always  stand  by  your  none- 
too-well-grounded  convictions.  Facts  go  to  prove  this. 
In  this  world  you  often  see  a  man  born  in  poverty, 
squalor  and  sin.  He  has  not  a  single  chance  in  life. 
Then  take  a  man  born  to  the  purple.  There  is  nothing 
to  vex  him.  Plenty  stalks  majestically  in  the  land.  He 
has  but  to  wish  and  lo !  it  is  fulfilled. 

"Everything  that  God  commands  is  for  the  best," 
you  say.  "Perhaps  his  father  is  to  blame,"  some  one 
would  sav. 


52        DEVELOPIXG  f^PIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

First,  why  should  I  be  punished  for  the  sins  of  my 
father,  secondly  why  should  I  not  be  created  as  my 
friend  is  ?  Why  should  every  one  laugh  at  my  Physical, 
Mental  and  Spiritual  endowments;  how  do  I  deserve 
this  ? 

"God's  ways  are  inexplicable,"  you  say.  Very  fine, 
indeed ! 

Friend,  God  does  not  love  mystery  mongering.  He 
can  never  give  us  pain  without  rhyme  or  reason.  My 
experience  tells  a  different  tale.  God  is  Love.  He 
acts  in  open  daylight.  We  go  to  Church  and  say  long 
prayers  for  sins  committed.  We  shall  commit  that 
same  sin  again  and  again ;  and  we  shall  cease  only  when 
repeated  blows  rub  the  lesson  home.  "You  must  cease 
from  this.    It  has  back  of  it  the  most  painful  results." 

Man  is  punished  not  for  his  sins  so  much  as  by  them. 
Nature  with  her  pitiless  ways  cannot  claim  mercy  for 
herself.  Her  laws  are  hard.  Be  it  a  sin  of  commission 
or  of  omission,  your  escape  is  impossible.  This  penalty 
bears  a  mission  peculiar  to  itself.  It/  is  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  It  is  the  merciful  knife  of  the  surgeon.  If 
there  is  loss,  pain,  suffering,  disappointment  at  one 
pole,  it  is  all  counterpoised  by  the  ripening  of  experi- 
ence, wisdom,  knowledge  at  the  other.  Hence  meas- 
ured on  the  scale  of  Compensation,  all  pain,  come  it 
how  it  may,  must  be  faced  with  patience.  Pain  comes 
in  jangled  vibrations,  seems  to  asphyxiate  the  whole 
man,  strikes  us  down  for  the  needed  lesson.  In  suf- 
fering we  pay  our  debts.    The  burden  is  lightened.    Sin 


MAN— THE  MASTER  53 

and  suffering  are  twins  and  separation  is  impossible. 
How  we  wish  we  had  been  let  off  scot-free;  how  like 
miserable  shirkers  we  wish  our  bed  had  no  crumpled 
rose  leaves.  Yet  would  you  who  weep  and  lament  be  mi- 
nus the  experience  and  wisdom  you  have  stored  up 
through  efforts  to  brush  pain  aside?  No  right  have  we 
then  to  rule  off  pain  as  a  visitation  of  a  wrathful  Deity. 
Eather,  we  shall  see  Cause  and  Effect,  not  somewhere 
and  sometimes  but  everywhere  and  always.  That  is  the 
position  of  Strength.  Every  sweet  has  its  sour.  We 
shall  confront  fate  with  fate,  fire  with  fire,  and,  stand- 
ing aside,  see  the  one  eat  the  other.  The  end  of  all 
philosophy  is  the  destruction  of  pain.  Not  milksops 
and  lunatics,  but  men  of  iron  courage  are  philosophers. 
Philosophy  is  thought  passed  and  purified  through  the 
fire  of  the  Living  Spirit.  It  is  deathless,  birthless  truth 
established  in  the  constitution  of  man.  Clay  and  clay 
differ,  they  say,  so  thought  and  thought  vary  in  power, 
tenacity  and  texture.  Man  is  a  living  magnet.  He  at- 
tracts. He  repels.  He  draws  in  his  own ;  he  throws 
out  what  is  not  related  to  him.  As  Emerson,  the  west- 
em  child  of  eastern  thought  sings: — 

'And  all  that  Nature  made  thy  own, 
Floating  in  air  or  pent  in  stone 
Will  rive  the  hills  and  swim  the  sea. 
And,  like  thy  shadow,  follow  thee.' 

Just   that   comes   to   us   wliicli    is    ours   by    right   of 
thought;  just  that  flies  off  from  us  which  is  not  ours. 


5-i        DEVELOPIXG  SPIRITIAL  COySClOUSNESS 

What  we  seek  we  shall  find;  what  we  flee  from,  will 
flee  from  us;  as  Goethe  said,  "What  we  wish  for  in 
youth  comes  to  us  in  heaps  in  old  age."  Everything  on 
the  zone  of  our  mental  vibration  will  be  ours.  Eemem- 
ber  you  who  read !  Thought  is  a  mighty  force.  It  is 
your  friend.  It  is  your  enemy.  As  your  ideal  in  life, 
along  that  line  will  Everything  flow.  You  are  a  Spark 
from  the  Eternal  Fire  and  as  is  proved  in  Higher 
Mathematics  the  parts  of  Infinity  are  an  Infinity;  you 
too  are  Infinite.  God  re-Exists  in  each  mortal  form. 
His  light  shines  full  upon  your  Consciousness.  You 
wish,  you  command,  you  demand,  you  assent,  and  you 
get — what  you  want;  though  you  go  to  sleep,  your 
thought  if  sufficiently  vitalized  by  concentration  will 
come  to  pass.  Determine  the  breadth,  the  solidity,  the 
soundness  of  the  plank  of  life  you  stand  upon.  You 
are  your  master.  Knowing  and  realizing  this,  you  shall 
step  up  to  the  highest  and  best  in  life  and  with  firm 
hands  pluck  the  fruit  you  would  taste.  The  sweet,  the 
bitter,  or  the  bitter-sweet  taste  is  according  as  you 
choose.  Where  and  what  is  Fear  then?  It  is  all  cause 
and  effect.  Laugh  at  Astrology,  at  Palmistry;  know 
their  secrets ;  know  they  are  emanations  from  you ;  and 
stand  fearless  and  strike  straight  from  the  shoulders, 
once,  twice,  thrice,  times  innumerable  till  your  strokes 
tell,  till  your  strokes  lay  low  the  monsters  that  have 
broken  their  teeth  upon  your  unyielding  shoulders;  till 
you  have  wliat  you  should  liave.  This,  friend,  i'^  a  passing 
glimpse  of  Life's  Conscions  Stage.     Here  Life  is  self- 


MAX— THE  MASTER 


determined.  Here  no  hand  but  yours  builds.  No  brains 
but  yours  thinks.  No  strength  but  yours  avails.  No 
soul  but  yours  bids,  bargains  and  at  last  bears  aivay 
the  palm. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SELF-DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Objective  Mood. 

MAN  should  ever  strive  to  develop  intrinsic  worth. 
Life  becomes  a  song  of  harmony,  Peace  and 
Power,  when  once  you  have  developed  and  expanded 
the  Will-power.  The  education  of  the  Will  should  be 
the  aim  of  your  life.  The  pleasure-seeker  is  an  ass. 
He  is  ever  complaining  of  his  hard  lot,  of  disappoint- 
ment, of  ill-health ;  he  is  as  a  bird  bereft  of  wings, 
quivering  its  shattered  pinions  in  its  vain  attempt  to 
soar  up  in  the  sky.  He  is  a  leaning  willow  whose  whole 
structure  indicates  weakness  and  dependence.  The  gods 
have  put  their  ban  upon  this  twentieth  century  fever 
for  pleasure.  Go  into  any  large  assembly  of  educated 
men  and  if  you  are  a  true  judge  of  character  you  will 
hardly  pick  out  five  men  out  of  five  hundred  with  the 
fine,  refined  impressive  features  of  Stoic,  a  heroic  soul 
in  an  obedient  body.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Their  chief  object  is  to  titillate  the  nerves  of  sensation. 
They  never  learned  the  great  and  important  law  of  Self 
denial.  They  are  being  dragged  along  by  a  force  far 
mightier  than  their  feeble  selves.    They  have  never  said 

56 


SELF-DEVELOPMENT  57 

a  firm  No,  to  their  impulses.  They  are  mere  masks  and 
not  men.  They  are  automatic  machines.  They 
may  have  picked  up  a  little  odd  knowledge;  they  may 
have  a  law  cunning,  but  they  lack  the  Affirmative  Force 
of  Character,  the  vim  and  pith  of  a  Positive  Personal- 
ity, the  calm  poise  of  controlled  energy.  They  have  never 
realized  the  intense  joy  of  a  soul  that  lives  only  to 
aspire  after  what  is  high  and  noble.  But  then  Exist- 
ence is  not  all  a  bed  of  roses.  Shocks  will  come  and, 
when  they  do,  these  weaklings  are  bowled  over  like  so 
many  nine-pins.  Then  they  just  sit  up  and  talk  of  their 
aching  hearts,  their  bleeding  wounds,  their  sorrow  laden, 
miserable  lives.  Their  good  wishes  are  as  so  many 
soap-bubbles.  Their  resolutions  are  mere  effervescence 
of  a  dying  vitality.  Their  promises  the  mere  ebulli- 
tions of  emotion  minus  the  stamina  to  accomplish  them. 
They  are  the  blind  worms  of  fate.  They  are  the  victims 
of  wicked-minded  men.  They  are  so  many  will- less, 
nerve-less  weaklings.    They  are  slaves. 

Whyf 

Because,  they  are  in  the  clutches  of  Ignorance.  Ig- 
norance consists  in  seeking  enjoATnent  of  the  senses. 
To  burst  the  chains  that  hold  you  captive,  give  up,  once 
for  ever,  the  desire  To  ENJOY,  and  DETEEMIXE  to 
positivize  the  Will-Force  for  the  free  and  smooth-work- 
ing of  the  wheels  of  Progress,  upon  which  weakness  is 
a  clog  and  must  be  removed  in  order  to  ensure  easy  ac- 
tion.    Pi  man,  nearly  ten  years  my  senior  in  age  and 


58        DEVELOPIAG  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOVSXESS 

the  father  of  three  children  was  suffering  from  dys- 
pepsia. It  had  become  chronic.  His  was  a  purely  ner- 
vous trouble.  He  was  sorely  afraid  that  his  stomach 
had  lost  all  power  to  digest  food.  For  months  he  had 
been  ailing.  The  doctors  could  give  no  aid.  His  fear 
was  always  realized.  At  last  after  quite  three  months 
of  painful  suffering  he  one  evening  came  to  me.  "Can 
you  do  anything  for  me?''  "Not  knowing  the  trouble 
1  cannot  prescribe  the  cure;"  I  replied.  "But  what  am 
I  to  do?  I  shall  be  a  wreck  in  a  short  time."  "Look 
here,  you  are  thoroughly  mistaken.  You  fear,  and 
your  fear  is  realized.  Fear  is  a  suggestion  for  adverse 
conditions.  Don't  be  afraid  and  everything  will  be  all 
right.  Trust  nature;  she  will  do  her  work."  "But  how 
can  I  master  this  fear  ?  It  paralyzes  me  and  my  mind." 
"Very  good,"  I  replied  energetically.  "Will  you  obey 
me?"  "Yes," — he  said.  "Don't  touch  any  food  for 
seven  days."  He  promised.  He  had  never  gone  with- 
out food  for  seven  days.  He  fasted  for  just  two  days. 
On  the  third  day  he  felt  famishing  for  food.  He  must 
eat.  He  did  eat.  The  food  was  digested.  It  is  six 
months  since  he  had  this  trouble  and  from  that  time 
till  now  he  eats  freely  and  digests  freely.  "When  the 
fear  comes  over  me,  I  just  determine  to  stop  eating  and 
that  drives  away  my  fear,"  he  said.  The  psychological 
explanation  is  simple.  His  determination  to  stop  eating 
was  an  antidote  to  his  fear;  the  former  was  a  Positive 
Denial  of  the  power  of  the  latter  to  overcome  this  man 
and  it  scattered  the  force  of  Fear. 


SELF-DEVELOPMENT  59 

By  evident  analogy  you  can  conclude  that  the  mere 
determination  to  kill  out  the  desire  for  en]0}Tnent  will 
bring  about  a  tremendous  change  of  thought-habit  and 
crush  your  weakness.  "If  thy  right  eye  otJend  thee, 
pluck  it  out."  However  keen  your  suffering  you  must 
determinedly  pluck  out  of  your  nature  everything  that 
weakens  you.  Best  assured,  this  step,  desperate  as  it  is, 
shall  ever  strengthen  you  and,  although  for  the  moment 
you  may  suffer  the  torments  of  Hell,  your  path  shall  open 
out  freely.  Do  not  yield.  Do  not  care  for  life.  Die,  if 
need  be,  but  die  a  strong  man  that  refused  utterly  to  yield 
to  illness.  Your  flesh  may  not  be  able  to  stand  the  strain 
of  such  action ;  but  your  spirit  shall  live  and  grow 
stronger.  However,  except  in  extremely  desperate  cases, 
the  flesh  ever  helps  the  spirit  when  the  latter  is  strong 
and  the  body  and  the  life  forces  at  once  become  the  best 
possible  co-operators  with  their  master.  Hence  determine 
to  stand  guard  by  your  High  Xature.  Draw  the  line  be- 
tween your  animal  and  your  Divine  Nature.  Cleave  to 
the  latter,  happen  what  may.  Remember,  my  readers, 
Doing  alone  teaches  Doing.  Therefore  determine  to 
perform  your  duties  according  to  the  dictates  of  your 
inner  Xature.  your  conscience,  your  intuitive  Nature. 
This  is  the  Objective  ]\Iood.  Doing  and  not  Dreaming. 
You  shall  be  at  the  top  of  your  condition  if  you  ever 
obey  the  suggestions  of  your  soul,  for  your  heart  shall 
never  tell  a  lie  although  your  tongue  may.  Determine 
to  be  master  of  yonr  mind  and  work  at  this  Concentra- 
tion exercise  dailv  with  oarnoct   ;ind  lioppfnl   steadfast- 


60       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

ness;  sit  up  at  night  in  perfect  silence.  Hold  yourself 
steady  bodily  and  mentally.  Then  begin  to  tense  your 
Will.  Feel  and  say  "I  am  this  very  moment  mastering 
my  mind.  Now.  This  moment.  Now.  Insist  on  im- 
mediate mastery.  Do  not  say  "tomorrow,"  but  say  "This 
moment."  Set  up  the  strong  Present  Tense  against  all 
else.  Do  not  give  up  till  you  are  quite  exhausted  men- 
tally. Do  it  with  perseverance.  It  will  set  up  strong 
vibrations  that  will  destroy  the  weak  atoms  of  your 
brain  and  thoroughly  establish  a  vigorous  tone  of 
thought-activity.  Practice  will  bring  light.  Inspira- 
tion comes  on  the  ^dbratory  wires  of  strong  thought  and 
strong  action.  Action,  muscular  exertion,  will  tune 
your  mind  to  a  responsive  condition,  will  clinch  your 
intentions  into  strength  and  motive  power  to  your  en- 
tire Nature.  Learn  to  tense  your  Will.  Learn  to  be 
positive  to  evil  suggestions,  either  from  your  own  Nature 
or  from  that  of  others.  Have  a  Spirit  of  your  own. 
Determine  to  do  a  thing  and  do  not  desist  while  there  is 
even  a  breath  left  in  the  body.  Greatness  could  never 
be  a  prize  for  cowards.  Only  the  brave,  the  pure,  the 
strong,  the  determined,  can  reach  the  goal.  None  else, 
none  else. 


CHAPTER  X. 

DEVELOPING  THE   SPIRITUAL   CONSCIOUSNESS. 

'The  mind  which  follows  the  rambling  senses,  makes 
the  Soul  as  helpless  as  the  boat  which  the  wind  leads 
astray  upon  the  waters." 

Bagavad — Gita. 

MAN  is  man  by  virtue  of  willing,  not  by  virtue  of 
knowing  and  understanding.  As  he  is,  so  he 
sees.  His  hopes  and  aspirations  are  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  depth  and  power  of  his  will :  for,  says  Emerson, 
"The  height  of  the  pinnacle  is  measured  by  the  breadth 
of  the  base." 

He  is  the  microcosm  of  the  macrocosm :  the  little 
world  of  the  big  world.  The  universe  exists  for  the  self: 
— such  is  the  dictum  of  the  sages. 

Man  has  appropriated  this  fomi,  this  coat  of  skin,  for 
the  exercise  and  unfoldment  of  his  Divine  Nature.  He 
is  ahove  Nature,  his  body  is  of  Nature. 

Man,  Know  Thyself,  was  mandate  of  the  Delph  Ora- 
cle. All  your  efforts,  your  joys  and  sorrows,  your  ups 
and  downs,  are  to  this  end.  You  now  grasp  this  thing, 
soon  you  drop  it;  then  you  grasp  that  thing;  soon  you 
drop  it; — Not  this,  Not  that,  you  say.  This  is  the 
speech  of  Negation :  neti,  neti :  Not  this,  Not  this. 

You  who  are  Infinite  in  essence  drank  deep  of  the 

61 


62       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

waters  of  Lethe  and  falling  under  the  magic  spell  of 
Maya,  forgot  yourself.  You  have  ever  since  then  been 
identifying  yourself  with  Nature,  with  your  form,  the 
Xot-self.  You  do  not  see  that  this  body,  this  brittle 
casket  of  clay,  is  for  disintegration,  for  dissolution. 
You  love  it  to  infatuation.  You  draw  the  cruel,  merci- 
less knife  across  the  neck  of  poor,  defenseless  animals 
to  gratify  your  lower  Nature.  This  body  must  live, 
though  I  eat  burnt  flesh,  rotten  flesh,  to  keep  it  alive. 
Man  would  eat  man,  if  his  digestion  did  not  get  upset, 
thereby.  Do  not  say  'No,'  you  animalized  ignorant 
soul !  You  swallow  camels  and  yei  you  strain  at  gnats. 
Thus  through  extreme  attachment  to  your  form,  have 
you  contracted  your  soul,  hypnotized  yourself  into  a 
finite  being.  You  alone  can  strip  off  your  limitations 
and  stand  in  your  Native  splendour  once  again.  To 
realize  this  is  to  realize  divinity — is  to  transcend  Na- 
ture! 

As  you  learn  to  control  Nature  within  you,  so  will 
you  control  things  outside  of  yourself,  so  shall  your 
great,  all-potent  will  shine  out  to  the  universe. 

Man's  icill  is  God's  will.  AVhat  is  of  God  is  God. 
The  Infinite  exists,  in  full  stature,  in  each  living, 
breathing  form.  Hence  to  l-now  yourself  is  to  Tcnow 
God.  You  are  Bliss  Eternal.  You,  the  Infinite,  be- 
came confined  in  sheaths  of  matter.  Your  real,  im- 
mortal self  shines  aloft,  but  what  little  was  caught  up 
by  the  physical  mechanism  of  Consciousness,  fell  sense- 
less under  the  hypnotic  suggestions  of  Maya.     Yet  an 


DEVELOPIXG  ^PIRniAL  CONSCIOUSNESS        68 

impulsion  from  within  is  pushing  you  on.  This  is  the 
Desire  to  achieve  happiness  which  is  a  distorted  reflec- 
tion on  the  physical  plane  of  your  own  blissful  self  that 
is  on  the  spiritual. 

It  is  the  natural  magnetism  of  your  real  self  that  is 
drawing  you  up.  Ends  ascend  as  Nature  descends,  said 
Swedenbourg,  the  Mystic.  All  things  are  in  a  scale; 
and  begin  ivhere  we  will,  ascend  and  ascend.  All  things 
are  symbolical;  and  what  we  call  results  are  beginnings: 
Emerson,  on  Plato,  the  philosopher. 

So  long  as  you  are  flung  about  under  the  influence  of 
passions  your  progress  will  be  clogged.  The  soul  is 
under  the  thrall  of  matter,  just  as  a  muscular  pair  of 
wrists  may  be  loaded  with  fetters.  It  is  trying  to  burst 
the  shackles  that  chain  it  down.  It  is  passing  through 
a  transition  stage.  Its  continued  effort  to  free  itself 
thoroughly  and  entirely  is  the  promise  of  the  future. 
Conquest  comes.  Yes !  Conquest  comes.  I  have  not 
read  these  two  words.  I  do  not  repeat  them  to  you 
like  a  parrot.  It  has  been  given  to  me  to  feel  the  fact. 
Do  not  say  "I  cannot.  It  is  beyond  me;"  say  "I  can. 
It  is  in  me."    So  will  you  conquer. 

This  ascension  of  the  soul  is  the  development  of  the 
Spiritual  Consciousness. 

It  is  not  intellectualism :  nor  spiritualism :  nor  su- 
pernaturalism:  nor  any  other  ism. 

It  is  the  quickening  of  your  evolution  on  the  spirit- 
ual plane  by  the  up-keep  of  a  systematized  line  of 
thought  activity  plus  the  self-determined  exercise  of 
volition. 


64       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

It  is  the  polarization  of  the  human  life  force  up  to  a 
high  pitch  of  concentrated  exercise  of  the  will-power  in 
Man. 

The  task  is  not  easy  of  accomplishment.  You  can 
achieve  it  only  by  dedicating  a  whole  life  time  to  it.  It 
is  worth  your  while.  Aim  at  thoroughness.  Take  up 
the  suggestions  I  pass  on.  Dream  them  out.  Think 
them  out.    Act  them  out. 

Your  aim  is  the  subjugation  of  the  animal  soul.  Have 
no  other  aim.  "When  one  becomes  freed  from  the  bond- 
age of  the  senses,  he  transcends  all  material  relations 
and  realizing  the  inward  light  regains  his  knowledge 
of  Himself — this  a  realization  of  the  truth.  It  dwells 
beyond  Mortality  and  Fear." 

One  thing  at  a  time  and  that  with  your  entire  heart 
and  soul.  The  ideal  you  have  set  up  for  yourself  must 
absorb  the  best  and  the  richest  forces  in  you.  Introduce 
the  thin  end  of  the  wedge.  Each  stroke  shall  drive  it 
deeper.  Do  not  scatter  your  energy.  Do  not  bum  your 
candle  at  both  ends.  The  secret  of  success  is  Concen- 
tration. A  man  may  be  an  omnivorous  reader.  He  is 
a  walking  Encyclopaedia.  His  brain  is  a  Bodlian  Li- 
brary. Yet  he  has  no  worth,  no  intrinsic  qualities,  that 
can  give  him  that  breadth  and  depth  of  dignity  that  go 
out  of  a  man  possessing  inner  force  of  character. 

Remember,  You  are  deathless,  birthless.  You  live  in 
the  Eternal.  One  life-span  can  be  but  a  short  one  at 
best.  Therefore  arrange  your  forces  so  that  they  shall 
flow  in  one  even  continuous  stream  along  one  line.    The 


DEVELOPIXG  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS        65 

man  who  has  thus  lived  upon  five  ideas  in  one  life,  will 
command  more  than  your  Jack-of-all-trades-but-master- 
of-none  man  ever  can.  You  must  stand  body  and  soul, 
for  your  ideas,  taking  up  each  and  quietly  working  them 
out  in  life.  This  will  avoid  much  friction  and  ever  in- 
sure a  clear  and  steady  brain. 

Education,  said  Vivekananda,  is  a  man-making ,  life- 
huilding  assimilation  of  ideas. 

You  must  then  by  patient  thinking  build  up  an  ideal 
for  yourself.  This  done,  give  up  all  dreaming,  all  castle- 
building,  and  start  in  for  the  work.  Then  three  things 
are  necessary  for  effectual  work. 

The  first  is  earnest,  ardent  Desire.  Your  heart  is 
knitted  to  things  of  the  earth,  earthy,  by  a  myriad  of 
tiny  threads.  To  break  up  the  links,  a  strong,  all-iniT 
pelling  force  is  needed.  Desire  ardently,  longingly,  for 
perfect  establishment  of  chastity  in  your  Consciousness. 
This  keen  desire  is  a  sine-a-qua-non.  \Yithout  it  you 
cannot  go  through  the  difficulties  that  bar  your  way. 
Clothe  yourself  in  this  panoply  of  power  and  the  shafts 
of  adverse  fortune,  shall  glance  off  from  your  strong 
armour.  If  you  haven't  this  gift,  it  shows  that  your 
sense  of  manhood  is  small.  You  lack  force.  The 
greater  the  sinner,  the  greater  the  saint.  A  man  must 
have  this  force  or  his  good  intentions  will  die  a  natural 
death.  lie  can  neither  be  a  saint  nor  a  sinner.  He  is 
taviasic;  is  of  a  dull,  lazy,  ease-loving,  insipid  nature. 

But  do  not  lose  heart,  if  you  belong  to  this  class  of 
men.     You  can  cultivate  this  force.    There  is  always  a 


66        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

way  out.  Your  imagination  is  your  creative  power. : 
Now  there  is  a  close  association  between  thought  and 
imagination.  Imagination  is  thought  in  its  full  free- 
dom. Therefore  to  train  the  desire-nature  you  must 
bring  thought  to  bear  upon  it.  Desire  cannot  train  de- 
sire. You  are  helpless  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the 
desire  aspect  of  the  Self.  You  desire  a  thing  or  you 
do  not;  that's  all. 

No.  Thought  alone  can  help  you  here.  Says  Emer- 
son:— There  is  no  thought  in  any  mind  but  it  quickly 
tends  to  convert  itself  into  a  power,  and  organizes  a 
huge  instrumentality  of  means. 

One  thought  repeated  for  days,  months  and  years 
will  become  very  strongly  vitalized.  Tremendous  will 
be  its  telling  force.  It  will  go  to  make  or  mar  your 
destiny.  As  the  famous  axiom  goes,  "Allow  the  thought, 
and  it  may  lead  to  a  choice,  'carry  out  the  choice,  and 
it  will  he  the  act,'  repeat  the  act  and  it  forms  the  habit ; 
allow  the  habit  and  it  shapes  the  character;  continue 
the  character,  and  it  fixes  the  destiny." 

Thought,  then,  is  the  fine  cause.  Stamp  it  well  upon 
your  mind.  It  is  a  tremendous  fact.  Learn  it  well, 
now :  now,  while  you  read  it. 

Picture  to  yourself,  then,  the  benefits  derivable  from 
control  of  the  lower  nature. 

See  how  the  man,  who  is  chaste  in  word,  deed  and 
thought,  is  above  the  din  and  strife  of  conflicting  pas- 
sions. He  is  calm,  serene,  and  self-poised.  Having  in- 
ner control,  the  control   of  the  outer  is  an  easy  affair 


DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS        67 

with  him.  He  does  not  go  about — anxious  for  recogni- 
tion. He  is  master  of  himself,  and  therefore  of  others. 
His  mere  presence  brings  peace  to  the  troubled  souls 
of  others.  His  speech  is  as  a  dash  of  cold  water.  It 
makes  you  sit  up  and  listen.  It  stimulates  you;  it  up- 
lifts you;  it  expands  you.  Nothing  is  impossible  to 
you.  You  seem  or  feel  as  if  you  w^re  another  being. 
The  chaste  man  has  communicated  himself  to  you  in 
all  his  fulness  and  breadth  of  nature.  He  has  stirred 
up  forces  in  you  of  which  perhaps  you  were  never  be- 
fore conscious. 

See  how  the  chaste  man  seems  to  purify  the  very  air 
he  breathes.  See  how  dauntless  is  the  courage  that  bub- 
bles up  from  within  him. 

See  how  he  is  idolized  by  humanity.  The  mere  sight 
of  him  puts  new  life  and  vigor  in  otliers.  His  power 
of  doing  good  seems  to  have  an  inexhaustible  reservoir 
behind  it. 

Thus  go  on  picturing  to  yourself  the  all-inclusive 
uses  of  chastity. 

This  is  the  positive  process  of  Visualization ;  Mental 
photography. 

Xow  if  your  case  is  desperate,  one  of  long  standing, 
take  up  the  negative  process. 

Picture  to  yourself  the  disappointment,  the  loss  of 
spiritual  force,  the  gloom  and  the  melancholy,  that 
cloy  all  passion;  the  swinish,  grovelling,  aspect  of  the 
sensual  soul :  the  consequent  exhaustion :  the  jeer  and 
ridicule  of  the  world  :  the  breaking-down  of  all  vour  fona 


68       DEVELOPIXG  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOUSXESS 

hopes:  the  pitiable  poverty-stricken  condition  of  those- 
dependent    on    3"ou;    the    disgraceful    passage    through 
death  into  an  even  more  hideous  condition  of  life:  the 
utter  degeneration:  the  shameful  existence:  the  haunt- 
ing thoughts  beyond. 

This  method  is  the  negative  one.  It  is  like  the  sur- 
geon's knife  used  to  cut  out  a  cancer  that  threatens  life. 
Desperate  diseases  require  desperate  remedies.  This 
process  is  not  advisable,  except  in  otherwise  hopeless 
cases.  Eather  use  the  positive  method.  As  you  sit  up 
visualizing  your  ideal  day  after  day,  its  attraction  to 
you  will  be  truly  magnetic.  Your  heart  shall  go  out  to 
it  in  all  its  force.  You  shall  want  to  embrace  the  ideal 
every  moment  of  your  life.  Energy  will  come  to  you. 
Indeed  your  complaint  then  shall  be :  I  have  more  en- 
ergy than  I  can  control,  more  thoughts  than  I  can 
marshal  up  for  serene  action. 

Your  thoughts  have  been  energized  by  constant  rep- 
etition. Now  you  must  learn  to  dominate  them:  to 
command  them  to  stillness :  to  relax  the  tension  in 
which  your  mind  is  constantly  putting  itself:  to  save 
your  brain  from  giving  way  under  this  surcharge  of 
unmarshalled  energy;  to  absolutely  vanquish  the  waves 
of  force  that  bubble  up  each  time  you  think  of  your 
ideal;  for  it  is  intoxication — the  irresistible  spell  of  a 
"iked  idea." 

Says  Swami  Vivekananda :  The  organs  are  the 
horses,  the  mind  is  the  reins,  the  intellect  is  the  char- 
ioteer, the  soul  is  the  rider,  and  this  body  is  the  chariot. 


DEVELOPIXO  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOUSNESS        69 

If  the  horses  are  very  strong  and  do  not  obey  the  reins, 
if  the  charioteer,  the  intellect,  does  not  know  how  to 
control  the  horses,  then  this  chariot  ivill  come  to  grief. 
But  if  the  horses,  i.e.,  the  organs,  are  well-controlled, 
if  the  reins,  i.e.,  the  mind,  arc  well  held  in  the  hands  of 
the  charioteer,  i.e.,  the  intellect,  the  chariot  reaches  the 
goal. 

This  then  is  the  line  of  action.  Developing  the  will- 
force,  the  second  of  the  three  requisites  I  spoke  of. 
What  is  the  principle  of  development?  Exercise.  How 
did  Earn  Murti  develop  his  splendid  physique,  that  to- 
day is  the  wonder  of  the  world?  Exercise.  How  did 
Vivekananda  develop  that  terrific  magnetism  that  in- 
undated the  entire  Parliament  of  Eeligions  at  Chicago? 
Exercise.  How  did  Sheridan  who  once  stuttered  in  his 
speech,  deliver  an  oration  at  the  famous  Impeachment 
of  AYarren  Hastings  that  made  the  Speaker  order  an 
adjournment  that  the  House  might  recover  from  the 
effect  of  the  volcanic  play  of  words.  Exercise.  Be  con- 
vinced, then.  My  reader !  Exercise  is  the  first,  last,  and 
the  only  condition  of  growth.  The  human  will  is  the 
grandest  culmination  of  all  the  complex  workings  in 
the  realm  of  Consciousness.  Schopenhauer  the  philos- 
opher puts  will  a-top  of  all  else  in  Natjure. 

It  is  a  grand  thing,  this  human  will.  Its  influence 
over  man  is  one  of  compelling,  forcing,  driving,  impell- 
ing, overpowering,  commanding,  demanding.  This 
force  is  essentially  Masculine. 

I  told  you  something  about  the  desire-force :  drawing, 


70        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

pulling,  attracting,  channing.  This  is  the  Feminine 
phase  of  Mental  energy. 

When  you  combine  the  two,  the  positive  and  the  neg- 
ative electrodes  in  the  human  brain,  your  suggestions 
whether  turned  in  upon  your  sub-conscious  self  or  pro- 
jected outward,  command  an  irresistible  position;  in 
fact,  they  influence  the  imagination,  reason,  or  will  of 
another  man  in  an  uncontrolled  man:  this  is  what 
comes  through  the  practice  of  Concentration.  We 
should  learn  to  make  use  of  both;  whether  we  are  sug- 
gesting auto-ally  or  outwardly. 

What  is  concentration?  Holding  the  mind  to  a  point. 
There  are  two  phases  of  concentration :  a  lower  and  a 
higher.  We  shall  take  up  the  first  only.  You  are  not 
prepared  for  the  second.  Only  those  whose  soul-un- 
foldment  is  an  actualized  fact  can  practice  it  and  they 
will  not  need  these  teachings.  They  are  their  own 
teachers. 

Eesolve  upon  the  performance  of  a  certain  mental 
work  with  concentration,  say  for  half  an  hour  at  the 
beginning.  Then  cari'v  it  out.  Do  it  every  day^  each 
time  prolonging  the  duration  of  the  exercise.  Suppose 
you  cannot  find  a  mental  task.     Here  is  one : 

First  of  all  "relax"  mentally  and  physically,  yet  re- 
main alert  and  steady.  Now:  Take  this  virtue:  Chas- 
tity. Eead  literature  on  this  subject.  That  will  pro- 
vide you  with  the  requisite  information  and  supply  many 
missing  links.  Study  it  fi'om  the  phvsical,  mental,  and 
spiritual   viewpoints.      Then   sit  up   and   calmly   think 


DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS        71 

out  the  bearings  of  the  virtue:  What  it  is?  How  to 
practice  it ;  its  resulting  benefit  to  humanity ;  its  ap- 
preciation; its  lifting  influence;  the  sense  of  courage 
which  it  gives;  its  absolute  importance  in  the  quick- 
ening of  your  Evolution  and  so  on  and  on. 

Then  steady  the  mind  upon  this  complete  shaping  of 
the  virtue.  Meditate  upon  it.  Dwell  upon  it.  Will 
determinedly  that  it  shall  become  established  in  you: 
that  from  the  moment  you  are  sitting  in  this  attiude  of 
Concentrated  willing,  all  your  forces  are  being  trans- 
mitted to  Chastity:  that  the  protoplasm  of  your  very 
physique  are  becoming  sensitive  to  the  fascination  of 
this  virtue:  that  there  is  a  tremendous  force  being  gen- 
erated right  in  the  centre  of  your  head  that  shall  pre- 
sent an  irresistible  front  to  all  evil  thoughts  and  ten- 
dencies :  that  your  entire  nature  vibrates  to  this  thought : 
— I  am  Chaste:  that  you  recoil  instinctively  from  all 
that  may  coarsen  your  finely-strung  spiritual  fibres: 
that  evil  falls  off,  flies  off,  from  your  intensely  poised 
mind  :  that  your  Higher  consciousness  is  unfolding :  that 
your  intelligence  is  expanding :  that  your  will  is  becom- 
ing strong,  very  strong :  that  your  body  obeys  you :  that 
you  have  power,  force,  within  you :  and  that  it  all  is  de- 
veloping. Now.  Say  "Now" — "this  moment"  and  insist 
upon  immediate  mastery.  Do  this  regularly  and  at  the 
same  time  every  day. 

Thus  you  can  will  yourself  into  any  state  of  mind  you 
like.  Not  in  one  day  or  in  one  week  will  you  obtain 
control.     It  will  require   a   hundred  sittings   or  even 


•i2       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

more.  But  from  the  very  first  sitting  a  sense  of  as- 
surance, the  consciousness  of  an  internally  developing 
force,  shall  come  to  you: — and  this  if  you  have  been 
thoroughly  earnest  over  your  task.  Perseverance  and 
patience  you  must  have.  Indeed !  to  have  these  is  to 
have  everything.  There  shall  come  about  a  step  for- 
ward in  your  evolution  at  each  sitting.  This  is  the  art 
of  willing.  You  get  it  cheap.  Do  not  treat  it  with  in- 
difference. Practice  for  a  fortnight  will  prove  to  you 
conclusively  the  verity  of  my  remarks.  You  have  been 
neck-deep  in  carnalities :  it  is  high  time  you  thought 
of  a  change.  Be  earnest.  Be  a  determined  man.  Focus 
upon  an  idea  and  stick  to  it  with  the  bull-dog's  tenacit}', 
till  you  have  seen  it  through  to  the  end.  Do  not  talk 
of  it  to  others.  Xever  tell  others  that  you  are  in  train 
ing.  Sufficient  gratification  of  your  vanity  shall  you 
have  when  you  have  acquired  the  wished-for  object. 
The  praise  of  the  world  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  your 
happiness.  The  approval  of  your  own  soul  is  quite 
sufficient.  Each  man  sets  his  own  measure.  If  you  be- 
lieve that  you  are  uniquely  fitted  to  be  a  virtuous  pure- 
hearted  man,  so  will  the  world  also.  Stick  to  your  own. 
Do  not  be  a  busy  body,  for  then  you  shall  be  nobody. 
Be  an  earnest  thoughtful  man.  Stand  rigidly  by  your 
ideal.  Do  not  force  it  upon  others.  But  do  not  be 
forced  out  of  it.     Simply  be  earnest. 

"To  your  own  self  be  true, 
and  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  ean'st  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 


DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS         73 

The  third  requisite  is  a  keen  and  broad  intelligence. 
.  You  must  not  go  and  buy  a  pig  in  a  poke.  You  must 
not  drive  a  nail  where  it  won't  go.  By  steady  and 
much  thinking,  you  shall  be  able  to  expand  this  fac- 
ulty. Learn  to  study  in  the  manner  taught  in  Chapter 
III— "EEAD  AND  EEFLECT."  There  you  have  in- 
structions that  you  may  well  utilize.  You  will  be  am- 
ply repaid  for  the  trouble  of  re-reading  it.  Books  supply 
missing-links  and  give  you  the  loose-end  of  suggestions 
which  you  can  work  out  at  leisure.  Read  little,  thinh 
much.  Your  intelligence  will  be  nurtured  by  contact  with 
a  pure  soul,  for  purity  charges  your  body  with  subtle,  ra- 
diant and  powerful  forces.  "Socrates  declares  that  if 
some  have  grown  wise  by  associating  with  him,  no  thanks 
are  due  to  him,  but  simply  whilst  they  were  with  him  they 
grew  wise  and  not  because  of  him."  This  is  the  secret. 
The  vibrations  of  a  stronger  mind  impinge  upon  your 
receptive  consciousness,  shake  up  some  of  its  grossness, 
and  implant  seeds  that,  fructifying  in  the  long  run, 
work  for  your  spiritual  upliftment.  Associate  with 
good  men.  Let  their  thought-magnetism  encircle  you 
and  exercise  its  subtle,  mysteriously  spiritualizing  in- 
fluence upon  you.  The  mere  contact  will  act  as  a  Liv- 
ing Force  and  awaken  your  latent  powers.  It  will  shed 
benediction  by  its  mere  touch.  Spirituality  is  not  in- 
tellectual gymnastics. 

It  is  the  life;  and  life  alone  can  convey  life.  His 
words  shall  wring  in  your  ears  even  when  you  are  far 
away  from   him.     His  glances  shall  remain  with  you, 


74        DEVELOPISG  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

etirring,  prompting  and  stimulating  you.  This  is  why 
India's  spiritual  teachers  command  the  respect  of  their 
pupils. 

Thus  friend !  when  you  have  gone  through  this  sim- 
ple training,  your  inner  spirit  shall  transmute  all  things 
that  approach  you  to  the  nature  of  your  ideals.  Ob- 
structions will  be  brushed  aside.  Many  of  the  vexa- 
tions and  tribulations  that  you  may  be  suffering  now 
shall  be  smoothed  out  of  your  path.  As  you  speak,  as 
you  look,  as  you  move  about,  your  inner  nature  shall 
flash  out  of  you.  It  will  enter  your  hands  and  feet  and 
compel  your  entire  being.  Thus  by  educating  yourself 
shall  you  set  others  a  good  example.  Life  will  be  v;orth 
living :  Death  will  lose  its  horrible  aspect :  love,  power, 
and  peace  shall  flow  out  of  you,  and  chasten  others. 
Guard  it  well.  "Wield  it  for  good  purposes  alone.  Yoa 
are  now  for  the  divine  side  of  things.  Your  will  is  law. 
Let  it  be  strong  and  guided  by  Love.  That  will  develop 
in  your  nature  Satfvic  or  ryhthmic  qualities.  Then 
shall  you  find  harmony  and  peace. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

WHO  CAX  BE  A  YOGI? 

TRUTH  knows  no  death;  no  birth.  It  is  Eternal; 
has  always  been,  will  always  be.  Time  cannot  ex- 
haust its  force,  for  it  carries  its  power  within  itself. 
Deep  in  the  heart  of  Truth  is  hidden  an  object  we  all 
are  groping  for.  It  is  power.  It  is  power  from  the 
Divine  side  of  things.  It  is  this  you  seek:  the  power 
to  be  good;  the  power  to  bring  relief  and  joy  to  suf- 
fering humanity ;  the  power  to  shake  yourself  free  from 
the  bondage  of  your  lower  nature. 

Man  always  seeks  to  act  out  his  good  wishes,  his  good 
intentions.  He  is  here.  He  clings  to  this,  to  that,  to 
all.  The  cup  of  desire  was  presented  to  our  lips.  We 
drank  it  deep.  Its  subtle  force  became  embedded  in  tlie 
matrix  of  our  being.  It  runs  in  our  blood.  We  just 
watch  its  constant  play,  and  watching,  say:  'Ah I  the 
cup  was  mixed  too  strongly.' 

Are  you  then  satiated  ?  Are  you  tired  of  being  tossed 
about?  of  being  manipulated  for  the  accomplishment 
of  impermanent  ends?  of  being  in  the  grip  of  Death, 
Despot,  and  Devil?  of  being  ridden  over  roughshod  by 
the  forces  of  Evil  ?  of  being  a  slave  to  fear,  a  subject  to 
wear  and  tear?  of  being  the  blindworm   of  Fate,  the 

75 


76        DEVELOriSG   S/'IL'/TTAL   COXSCIOI  SXES,"^ 

puppet  of  adverse  conditions;  conditions  that  cut  up 
your  opportunities  in  life  into  tiny  bits  and  scatter 
same  to  the  winds  of  lieaven  ?  of  being  hungry  for  the 
fleshpots  of  gold  and  greed  ?  of  being  in  the  thrall  of 
Fear,  of  Worry,  of  animalism,  of  worldism  the  most 
shallow  and  painful?  In  fine,  have  you  had  your  fill 
of  slavery?  WOULD  YOU  BE  WHAT  YOU  WILL 
TO  BE  ?  Then  learn  to  say  with  dauntless  courage  "I 
am  Master,  not  somewhere  and  sometimes,  hut  every- 
where and  always.  I  ivill  put  my  shoulders  to  the  ivheel 
and  hew  out  my  own  path.  My  courage  is  indomitable. 
My  spirit  hnows  no  flagging,  no  defeat,  no  despair.  I 
am  Fearless  and  Free" — tliis  you  must  learn  to  say  with 
assurance  based  upon  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  condi- 
tions of  your  existence;  existence  not  outer,  but  inner; 
your  inner  existence,  mark  you. 

That  knowledge  is  self  knowledge.  No  idle  boast  of 
the  tongue  it  is  to  say  with  utter  conviction  "I  am  Mas- 
ter." Your  tremendous  assertion  must  be  the  outcome 
of  knowledge  of  the  Supreme,  of  austerities,  of  purity, 
of  love.  It  must  be  grounded  upon  experience;  and 
here  are  a  few  suggestions  just  to  put  you  upon  the 
right  path. 

Man's  nature,  like  all  else  in  Nature,  is  bi-polar:  it  is 
centrifugal  and  centripetal ;  positive  and  negative :  inte- 
rior and  exterior.  He  is  a  living,  breathing,  powerful 
magnet.  There  is  a  magnet  lying  in  the  midst  of  splin- 
ters of  steel.  What  is  the  action  going  on?  It  attracts, 
it  repels.  So  also  with  man.  He  draws  things  to  him- 
self; he  drives  things  awav  from  himself. 


WHO  CAN  BE  A  YOGI  77 

x^gain,  Man  acts  upon  three  planet^;  physical,  mental, 
spiritual.  Some  are  active  upon  the  first  only.  They 
are  the  lowest  type  of  humanity.  They  are  in  the  thrall 
of  matter.  They  are  in  the  things  of  the  earth,  earthy. 
They  are  tied  down  to  the  attractions  of  tlie  world  and 
the  flesh.  They  have  their  thouglits  bound  to  tlie  phy- 
sical and  carnal  side  of  life.  They  do  not  live  to  eat  but 
eat  to  live.  Their  souls  say  'eat,'  but  they  cry  aloud 
'No,  you  fool,  I  will  feast.'  Their  souls  say  'Man  and 
woman  shall  be  one  in  the  spirit.'  But  they  say,  'ISTo, 
man  and  woman  shall  be  one  in  the  flesh.' 

One  functioning  only  on  a  physical  plane  corsets  his 
body;  he  kills  harmless  animals  simply  to  please  his  pal- 
ate; his  own  senses  must  be  constantly  gi-atified  by 
means  fair  or  foul :  he  it  is  who  says  'Eat,  drink  and 
be  merry,  for  tomorrow  we  die :'  'Ye  Gods  I  I  have  dined 
today,  tomorrow !  do  thy  worst :'  The  physical  man  is 
the  lowest  man,  the  blindworm  of  fate,  the  slave  of  his 
desire-nature.  He  is  the  domestic  tyrant;  the  cruel 
Shjdock  insisting  upon  his  pound  of  flesh;  the  oppres- 
sive ruler;  the  coarse-fibred,  beef-and-beer-bred  eater  of 
burnt  flesh.  The  physical  man  cares  little  for  God  ex- 
cept when  the  wolf  is  growling  at  the  door.  But  wlien 
pain  batters  his  brow;  when  his  child,  whom  alone  he 
perhaps  loves,  is  writhing  in  pain,  he  thinks  of  God, 
goes  to  church,  and  prays  for  the  pardon  of  sins  he  will 
commit  again,  and  again  and  again.  How  woeful  is 
this  state  of  mind  !  Yet  it  is  not  necessary.  We  have 
all  been  through  this  experience.     So  if  we  come  across 


78       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

one  such,  we  must  not  shun  him,  but  rather  we  should 
try  our  best  to  give  him  a  lilt.  He  is  the  object  of  our 
compassion  and  not  of  hatred.  Remember  always: 
Those  who  hate  others  for  being  evil  are  themselves  evil. 
The  face  of  another  man  is  the  mirror  in  which  I  dress 
my  own.  If  I  am  evil,  I  shall  see  others  as  such.  To 
the  jaundiced  eye  everything  apears  yellow.  My  eyes 
aj-e  blinded  by  my  own  evil  tendencies.  Perhaps  I  am 
beginning  to  fight  evil  in  myself.  Hence  when  I  see 
another  worse  than  myself,  I  see  evil  in  a  nragnified 
form.  I  therefore  feel  my  indignation  rise  up  against 
it  and  I  hate  the  evil  man,  for  is  he  not  the  embodiment 
of  what  he  appears  to  be?  This  repulsion  is  in  me  be- 
cause I  myself  am  struggling  with  evil.  The  man  who 
is  subject  to  fits  of  rigliteous  indignation  is  really  him- 
self very  imperfect.  He  instinctively  clings  to  stern 
rejection  of  an  evil  as  the  only  way  to  escape  it.  But 
when  your  conquest  has  risen  lo  a  height  of  assurance, 
you  do  not  hate;  you  pity;  you  help. 

Now  man  not  being  by  any  means  a  finished  product 
of  Nature,  but  only  a  developing  creature,  full  of  im- 
mense potentialities,  cannot,  even  if  he  would,  remain 
a  permanent  fixture  in  the  narrow  sphere  of  tlie  phys- 
ical senses.  Impacts  from  without,  the  slings  and  ar- 
rows of  adversity,  the  ups  and  downs  of  life,  are  dashing 
up  against  his  sleeping  consciousness;  they  are  so  many 
blows  to  open  up  his  mental  horizon.  It  is  sufferings 
that  drive  lessons  home  and  propel  the  lo<*mant  con- 
sciousness along  the  endless  track  of  spiritual  evolution. 


WHO  CAX  BE  A  YOGI  79 

Extremes  meet.  What  is  the  state  of  the  Zoophite  or 
of  the  stone.  Complete  absence  of  thought.  Perhaps  a 
faint,  imperceptible  vibration.  Now,  tell  me  what  is  the 
state  of  the  highest  man — the  adept — in  the  supercon- 
scious  stage,  in  Xii^vana; — complete  suspension  of 
thought,  complete  quietude  of  the  otherwise  intensely 
active  life-forces.  Then  is  the  adept  in  Samadhi  the 
same  as  the  Zoophite  ?  No  !  No !  No !  The  difference  is 
wide  as  the  ocean.  The  first  is  one  of  intense  bliss,  the 
last  is  one  of  total  inertia. 

From  this  view-point,  we  can  continue  the  parallel. 
Man's  physical  equipment  is  played  upon  by  three  special 
forces:  Satliva,  Rajas,  and  Tamas;  rhythm:  mobility: 
inertia.  Taking  the  last  first  we  see  that  tanms  is  in- 
ertia. The  tamasic  man  is  lazy,  dull,  inactive,  weighed 
down  by  his  own  sensual  thoughts.  He  has  no  control 
over  himself.  He  is  lifeless.  Digestion  and  sex  absorb 
his  vital  forces.  His  formulae  of  life  are  Eating,  Drink- 
ing and  Breeding.  Having  no  strength,  no  inner  force 
of  character,  resistance  of  evil  is  an  utter  impossibility 
to  him.  He  plays  today  to  the  rich  for  the  loaves  and 
fishes  of  office.  He  higgles.  He  cringes.  He  weeps. 
He  whines.  He  goes  about  trying  to  please  everybody 
and  thus  he  pleases  nobody.  The  smile  of  the  rich  is 
his  sunshine.  The  empty  praise  of  fools  is  his  crowning 
victory.  Allien  evil  presses  him  down,  he  cries  aloud: 
^'What  can  I  do  ?  T  am  so  weak,  such  a  sinner !"  He 
is  thus  condemning  himself.  Unable  to  resist  evil, — 
for  he  does  not  resist  but  simply  sits  down  and  wrings 


80       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

his  hands  and  beats  his  breast — he  hates  himself.  It  is 
all  kismet,  is  his  wail !  Ah !  this  superstition !  How 
vice-like  is  its  grip  on  the  tamasic  man ! 

Once  upon  a  time  there  lived  a  Persian  king  who 
commanded  the  angelic  as  well  as  the  human  worlds. 
Peris,  and  houries  of  transcendent  charm,  slaves,  dzins, 
gods,  animals,  all  obeyed  him.  This  powerful  monarch 
had  a  very  wise  physician  at  his  court.  This  physician 
was  master  of  all  occult  knowledge.  Vast  was  his  learn- 
ing— deep  his  erudition.  The  finer  forces  of  this  tre- 
mendous universe  had  no  secrets  for  him.  The  king  in 
one  of  his  odd  moments  sent  for  him.  '"Great  Master 
of  the  Mysterious  in  Xature,  solve  me  the  riddle  of 
birth  and  death.  Solve  me  the  riddle  of  fate," — thus 
spoke  the  monarch.  "Gracious  king,"  replied  the  phy- 
sician, "Fate  wears  an  inscrutable  face.  It  sways  all, 
all."  "Prove  it,"  challenged  the  king.  The  physician 
then  had  a  jar  brought  up  to  him.  He  prepared  cer- 
tain combinations  of  herbs,  known  only  to  the  ancient 
Kabalists  and  put  them  into  the  jar.  He  then  had  the 
jar  hermetically  sealed;  and  handed  it  to  the  king: 
"King!  I  have  gratified  your  whim.  My  life's  span 
covers  twenty-four  hours  more.  Six  months  after  you 
shall  open  this  jar  in  the  presence  of  all  your  courtiers. 
Out  of  the  jar  shall  emerge  a  bird  of  royal  plumage. 
Let  the  bravest  man  be  ready  to  ride  after  this  bird. 
Let  his  steed  be  of  the  fleetest  and  the  best  in  your  stud. 
This  bird  shall  fly  over  600  miles.    The  horseman  must 


WHO  CAX  BE  A  YOGI  81 

follow  it  alone.  It  will  at  last  perch  itself  on  a  tree 
of  great  height.  It  will  then  begin  to  pluck  its  splen- 
did feathers  one  by  one  and  eat  them  up.  It  will  next 
begin  to  tear  up  its  legs  and  eat  them  up.  It  will  then 
plunge  its  beak  into  its  own  stomach,  and  drawing  forth 
the  entrails,  eat  them  up,  too.  Let  the  horseman  stand 
beneath  the  tree  and  watch  the  bird  closely.  As  soon 
as  the  bird  has  eaten  up  its  whole  body  except  the  neck 
and  the  head,  let  him  ask  it  3  questions  and  the  answers 
shall  be  quite  correct."  Twenty-four  hours  later  this 
great  occultist  breathed  his  last.  The  king  had  every- 
thing arranged  and  the  physician's  son,  a  young  war- 
rior of  great  prowess,  consented  to  follow  the  bird.  Six 
months  after  the  jar  was  opened  before  the  whole  court. 
Up  flew  a  bird  of  wondrous  beauty.  Light  flashed  from 
its  body.  With  an  ear-piercing  cry,  the  bird  winged 
its  way  through  space,  the  youth  riding  after  him.  At 
last  the  bird  alighted  on  a  tall,  stately  palm  tree  and 
began  to  eat  itself  up  voraciously.  "N"ow  the  moment 
approaches,"  said  the  brave  youth  exultingly.  But 
hardly  had  he  uttered  these  words  than  a  terrible,  acute, 
unbearable,  pain  shot  through  his  brain.  It  was  tooth- 
ache, ^^^lilst  the  youth  was  thus  writhing  in  exquisite 
suffering  the  bird  spoke,  "Brave  warrior !  Be  quick.  My 
head  and  neck  remain.  Quick !  Put  the  questions  or 
I  eat  up  my  neck  also."  But  the  youth  was  crawling 
in  pain.  His  senses  had  fled.  Yet  making  an  effoi't 
he  asked,  "What  is  the  remedy  for  toothache?"    "Zam- 


82        DBVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  COysClOUSXESS 

bur"  (the  instrument  for  extracting  teetli) — came  the 
ringing  reply.  "What  is  the  remedy  for  toothache?" 
'•Zambur/'  cried  the  bird  again.  "AMiat  is  the  remedy 
for  toothache?''  "Zambur,"  sang  out  the  bird  for  the 
tliird  time  and  vanished  from  sight.  The  king  when 
]ie  heard  it  felt  deeply  chagrined.  But  what  could  he 
say  to  the  youth.  "I  would  have  done  the  same  thing !" 
exclaimed  the  just  monarch  sadly,  "Who  can  triumpli 
over  fate?" 

Therefore  conquer  the  flesh  before  you  question  the 
mysteries  of  Life.  It  would  be  the  turning-point  in  the 
life  of  the  tamasic  man  if  he  could  say  "I  will  resist 
evil."  His  non-resistance  is  due  to  weakness  and  weak- 
ness alone.  Then  comes  the  Rajasic  man:  full  of  ac- 
tivity :  his  brain  toned  up  to  a  tremendous  pitch  of  en- 
ergy. "Nothing  shall  stand  in  my  way,"  is  his  deter- 
mined cry.  "I  will  resist."  He  does  not  sit  down  and 
bemoan  his  lot.  He  does  not  talk  of  destiny,  his  evil 
star,  his  guardian  angel,  his  fate.  He  measures  his 
strength  by  his  resistance  of  all  that  would  bar  his 
progress.  He  strikes.  He  resists  evil  and  thereby  does 
the  right  thing.  He  passes  through  much  storm  and 
stress,  toil  and  turmoil,  but  his  spirit  burns  with  a  steady 
blaze.  Nothing  can  crush  him.  At  last  this  severe  and 
continued  fighting  so  toughens  and  tones  his  fibres  that 
he  has  but  to  lift  a  finger  in  order  to  bring  others  to  his 
feet.  Then  comes  calmness.  He  is  a  lamp  burning 
steadily  despite  the  winds  and  waves  playing  around 
him.     At  last,  he  is  conscious  of  tremendous  force.    H^ 


WHO  r.i.v  nr:   i  yogi  83 

knows  he  can  smite  a  fellow  down  easily.  Then  pos- 
sessed of  this  superhuman  strength  the  saint  forbears. 
He  has  the  power,  but  wields  it  for  good  purposes  alone. 
This  is  the  Sathvic  man.  This  is  then  the  supreme 
stage:   Non-resistance  of  evil. 

To  resume  the  thread  of  our  discourse :  The  physical 
man  would  gladly  remain  in  the  quagmire,  but  things 
go  against  his  wishes.  His  consciousness  is  trying  to 
individualize  itself,  to  centre  itself;  and  the  result  of 
his  effort  is  that  he  is  being  flung  about  mentally.  The 
mind  wanders.  It  is  being  tossed  about.  It  is  the  bul- 
ter-fly  mind.  The  first  stage  of  consciousness.  It  is 
called  the  kshipta  state. 

The  next  stage  is  brought  about  by  the  breaking  of 
the  emotions,  the  passions,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust 
of  life,  the  pride  of  the  eye.  \Yhen  these  assert  them- 
selves, confusion,  utter  and  most  desolate  follows.  A 
still  small  voice  is  constantly  telling,  "It  is  bad  to  lose 
your  temper,"  but  you  never  try  to  keep  it  till  you  have 
lost  it.  The  same  with  other  foibles.  You  wish  to 
control  but  you  cannot  just  when  you  ought  to.  There 
comes  a  feeling  of  utter  ignorance,  despair  and  desola- 
tion. Life  seems  insipid.  Pleasures  have  lost  their 
piquant  flavour.  You  are  sad-eyed,  silent,  yet  patiently 
suffering.  The  crucifixion  nails  are  being  driven  in. 
The  pain  is  acute.  This  is  the  mudha  state.  In  this 
transition  stage,  the  individualized  consciousness  is  suf- 
fering its  birth-pangs.  It  has  yet  to  cut  its  wisdom- 
teeth.     The  gold  is  being  put  into  a  furnace  of  fire  that 


84      nETELonya  .'<ri ritual  com^ciousxess 

the  dross  may  be  Inirnt  ofl"  and  the   pure  metal  come 
out  in  all  its  shining  splendor. 

But  consciousness  is  a  series  of  sudden  awakenings, 
with  a  sure  belief  in  its  actual  existence.  Thus  at  last 
the  man  who  has  been  willing  earnestly  to  achieve  self- 
control  draws  help  to  himself :  Men  superior  to  him 
mentally  and  spiritually;  books  rich  with  useful  infor- 
mation; thoughts  laden  with  force; — all  are  drawn  to 
him.  He  hears  the  great  men;  receives  their  higher 
vibrations;  absorbs  same.  He  extracts  useful  details 
from  books.  He  pauses  in  the  nish  of  life  when  a  good 
thought  shines  out  to  him.  He  is  building  up  an  ideal 
for  himself.  His  life  is  taking  on  a  coherent  shape.  He 
is  no  more  aimless.  He  has  a  wider  outlook  on  life. 
Blissful  visions  of  the  perfect  man  that  he  is  to  be  one 
day  float  before  his  eyes.  Peace  comes  and  folds  its 
wings  around  his  once  pain-stricken  life  for  a  few  mo- 
ments. Iso  achievement  has  yet  come  to  him.  He  is 
simply  surrounded  with  delicious  day-dreams.  He  is 
thus  vitalizing  his  ideal.  At  last  the  ideal  possesses  him, 
entrances  him,  fascinates  him.  His  is  in  a  state  of  infat- 
uation. He  is  mad  upon  one  idea.  He  is  turned  in- 
wards. Externality  is  no  more  his  bane.  Thus  perhaps 
he  goes  through  life  dominated  by  one  idea.  This  is 
the  third  stage:  Yil'sMpta:  the  state  of  preoccupation 
through  love,  ambition,  etc.  "Genius  is  madness,"  they 
say.  So  it  is.  This  man  is  approaching  Yoga.  He  is 
under  the  magic  spell  of  a  fixed  idea.  He  may  under 
its  influence  reel  off  into  monomania  or  he  may  suffer 


WHO  CAX  BE  A  YOGI  85 

martyrdom.  Maniac  or  martyr,  he  stands  for  an  idea. 
This  man,  who  instead  of  being  possessed  by  one  single 
idea,  possesses  it  and  controls  it,  touches  the  higher 
consciousness. 

In  the  third  stage  this  Eternal  Traveller  learns 
ViveJca:  "discrimination  between  the  real  and  the  un- 
real, between  the  outer  and  the  inner."  In  the  fourth, 
he  learns  EJcagrata: — one-pointedness.  He  carved  out 
a  statuesque  ideal  of  himself.  He  has  to  actualise  it, 
to  vitalise  it,  to  realise  it.  Xow  comes  the  state  of 
practice,  of  training,  of  discipline,  of  asceticism,  of 
austerities,  of  vairagya — dispassion, — of  solitude,  of  Tit- 
ter devotion  to  his  ideal.  He  is  unattached.  The  world 
is  no  longer  for  him.  His  whole  mind  is  concentrated, 
focused,  upon  his  ideal.  He  is  a  Stoic  of  stoics.  He  is 
above  pleasure  and  pain,  praise  and  blame,  virtue  and 
vice,  and  all  the  other  dualities.  He  knows  that  he 
cannot  have  the  one  without  the  other.  ISTo  longer  does 
he  tremble.  "THERE  CAX  BE  NO  FALL  NOW," 
he  says.  "1  live  in  the  ETERNAL.  I  can  never  die. 
My  ideal  is  mine  already  mentally.  I  shall  bring  it  down 
to  the  physical  throiigh  continued  exertion.  I  have 
started  the  fine  causes,  I  have  introduced  the  thin  end 
of  the  wedge  and  each  stroke  shall  drive  it  deeper." 
This  stage  is  the  fifth  stage:  Nirudlia:  self-controlled: 
takes  or  does  not  take,  chooses  as  he  wills  according  to 
the  illumined  will.  This  man  can  effectively  practice 
Yoga.  This  stage  corresponds  to  activity  on  the  spiritual 
plane.  Further  Patau jili  tells  in  that  "these  stages  of 
mind  are  on  every  plane." 


m        DEVELOPING  SPIRHUAL  C0XSC10USNE8S 

Now,  mj  reader,  if  you  are  undergoing  training,  think 
well  over  what  I  have  said.  It  is  but  little  at  the  best. 
Yet,  it  will  help  teach  you  to  realize  your  own  state.  In 
the  first  and  second  stages,  Yoga  is  impossible.  In 
these,  you  are  in  the  womb  of  pain.  But  take  heart, 
thou  brave  one !  Pain  is  to  be  accepted.  It  will  chasten, 
toughen  and  strengthen  you.     Hence  flinch  not. 

If  in  the  third,  you  are  nearly  ready  for  the  treading 
of  the  higher  path.  Short  indeed  is  the  transition  from 
the  third  to  the  fourth,  from  thence  to  the  fifth,  and 
thence  to  Samadhi.  The  last  you  need  hardly  aim  at; 
60  difficult  indeed  is  its  achievement  that  the  mere  con- 
templation of  it  will  dash  your  spirits.  Effort,  inten- 
sity of  the  will-to-achieve,  earnestness,  purity,  devotion, 
tenacity  of  purpose,  will  bridge  the  distance  of  time  for 
you.  The  light  shining  upon  us  is  but  a  fitful  glimmer. 
"We  shall  strengthen  it  so  that  it  shall  burn  steadily, 
calmly,  evenly,  right  on  through  life.  Do  you  hear  this 
call  ?  It  is  not  a  call  to  arms :  to  bloodshed :  to  man- 
slaughter :  to  worldism :  to  sham  supernaturalism :  to 
present-day  spiritualism.  It  is  a  call  to  ascetism; — 
stern,  self-imposed,  and  severe :  to  self-sacrifice ;  to 
chastity;  to  manhood;  to  continence;  to  mercy;  to 
brotherhood;  to  life; — keener,  harder,  fuller,  more  sen- 
sitive; to  Love,  pure  and  simple.  Here  you  touch  the 
apex  of  bliss.  Here  you  drink  God's  sweet,  soothing 
elixir  at  the  pure  fount  of  life.  Here  you  realise  all 
that  you  have  been  hungering  for.  Here  learn  to  say 
with  the  dear  blessed  Swami : 


WHO  CAN  BE  A  YOGI  87 

"Each  soul  is  potentially  divine. 

The  Goal  is  to  manifest  this  divinity  within,  by  con- 
trolling nature,  external  and  internal. 
Do  this  either  by  work,  or  worship,  or  psychic  control, 
or  philosophy,  by  one  or  more,  or  all  of  these — and 
be  free. 
This  is  the  whole  of  religion.  Doctrines  or  dogmas,  or 
rituals,  or  books,  or  temples,  or  fonns  are  but  sec- 
ondary details. 

— Vivehananda . 
Learn  to  say  these  blessed,  saving  words  with  your 
heart  full  of  Divine  passion.  Learn  to  rest  upon  them 
as  you  would  on  a  rock.  Tliey  were  ground  out  of  the 
heart's  blood  of  one  of  India's  greatest  saints.  Meditate 
upon  them.  Make  them  the  flesh  of  your  flesh  and  the 
bone  of  your  bone.  Rest  under  the  protecting  wings  for 
ever  and  ever.  You  are  great.  Compared  to  your  na- 
ture this  world  is  but  a  pinch  of  star-dust.  Lightning 
can  but  smite  your  body  at  worst,  not  you.  The  sword 
can  but  cut  up  your  body  into  pieces,  not  you.  The  fire 
can  hut  burn  your  bodv,  not  you.  The  water  can  but 
drown  yovir  body,  not  you.  Why  fear  then?  0  Thou 
Soul !  You  are  Master,  not  somewhere  and  sometimes. 
but  everywhere  and  always,    you  are  of  god. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM. 

WHAT  is  Constructive  Idealism? 
It  is  a  process  whereby  we  strive  to  construct, 
develop  and  project  an  ideal  personality  on  the  spirit- 
ual, mental  and  physical  rungs  of  human  evolution.  It 
is  training,  self-imposed  and  self-directed.  Man's  im- 
mediate developmental  conditions  are,  beyond  all  doubt, 
thought-structures  materialised  on  the  physical  plane, 
Fince  Man  is  ever  the  reflex  of  his  mind.  Could  we  lift 
tlie  brain-cap  of  a  man  and  watch  the  inter-play  of 
Will,  Emotion  and  Intellect,  we  should  in  no  time  be- 
come convinced  that  our  thought-life  has  never  lost  the 
grand  and  stern  emphasis  of  its  dignity.  But  it  is  given 
to  us  to  make  or  mar,  to  raise  or  to  lower  ourselves. 

Efforts  to  call  up  the  resurgence  of  the  spiritual 
forces  that  inhere  in  us  and  that  are  interaffinitised  to 
the  psychic  realms  of  vibration  are  so  many  blood- 
drops  from  the  core  of  our  being  sprinkled  upon  fertile 
soil.  Our  reaction  upon  ISTature  determines  the  centre 
and  turning-point  of  our  life.  This  reaction  is  due  to 
the  action  of  the  Free- Will.  The  Will  is  the  pivotal 
point  round  which  revolve  the  issues  of  destiny.     Con- 


COXSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  89 

stmctive  Idealism  then  is  a  life-building  assimilation 
of  the  highest  and  the  best  within  the  reach  of  our 
mental  and  spiritual  vision.  It  is  from  my  point  of 
view  a  determined  effort  to  intensify  ourselves  along 
lines  of  human  uplift  by  a  systematized  application  of 
the  laws  of  psychology.  It  is  the  putting  forth  of  posi- 
tive effort  to  develop  and  expand  our  spiritual  stature. 
Life  in  this  world  is  a  gymnasium  for  the  exercise  of  the 
will.  It  matters  little  how  many  years  you  have  been 
here  in  this  world.  It  matters  little  how  many  moments 
of  sense  enjojanent  you  have  had.  Indeed !  You  may 
be  as  old  as  Methuselah.  Your  entire  life-span  may 
have  been  enjoyable.  Such  things  do  not  count. 
What  is  of  vital  moment  is  how  far  you  have  succeeded 
in  your  triumph  over  your  lower  Nature,  how  far  your 
Spirituality,  Firmness,  Conscientiousness,  Veneration, 
Casuality,  etc.,  are  developed;  how  far  you  feel  for  suf- 
fering humanity;  how  far  your  Soul  is  on  the  ascendant 
and  your  flesh  is  under  your  feet.  For  this  last  is  the 
crown  and  climax  of  all  human  endeavor  along  right 
lines.  It  is  chastity  alone  that  can  give  us  a  lift  up 
from  the  quadruped  stage.  With  ordinary  humanity, 
with  even  the  intellectual  classes — in  some  measure — it 
is  a  .step  forward  and  then  a  long  stagger  backwards  to 
the  animal  stage.  This  phenomenon  is  so  constant  that 
the  aspiring  soul  stops,  hesitates,  and  then  as  if  a  douche 
of  cold  water  had  been  poured  upon  it,  shrivels  up  in 
fear  and  heaves  a  sigh,  "Oh !  It  is  impossible !  It  is  my 
nature!    How  can  I  transcend  it?     Impossible!     Im- 


90        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSXEl^,S 

possible !"  Poor  Ignorant  Man !  How  he  weeps  and 
wails.  He  does  not  know  that  nothing  is  impossible  to 
the  Divine  Spirit;  that  there  is  ever  a  way  out;  that 
there  is  ever  a  way  up,  if  its  vision  were  a  bit  wider  and 
better  trained.  Know,  My  Eeader!  What  is  soul-force 
inside  of  yourself  is  the  mighty  Law  of  God  outside; 
and  relief  and  joy  are  dependent  upon  pre-established 
harmony  between  the  two,  for  at  the  center  they  are 
One. 

Is  it  possible  then?  What?  Self-conquest?  Yes. 
You  can  conquer,  even  utterly  crush  the  lower  nature. 
If  it  be  within  range  of  practicability,  why  then  is  the 
major  portion  of  humanity  grovelling  in  carnality.  Be- 
cause, they  do  so  willingly.  It  is  the  animal  soul  that 
has  fastened  its  grip  upon  them.  The  Higher  Soul  has 
been  almost  buried  under  coating  after  coating  of  carnal 
tendencies.  Man  has  not  obeyed  his  inmost  thought. 
He  has  ever  yielded  to  his  impulses.  He  has  liad  his 
face  in  a  bush  and  ostrich-like  he  has  considered  him- 
self safe.  The  memories  of  superstitition ;  the  blotted 
pictures  of  Heaven  and  Hell ;  the  preacher  of  religious 
dogmas;  know-nothing  religions,  slave-trading  and 
slave-trading  religions;  the  squalor  of  animal  lust, 
greed,  and  hard  selfism,  and  every  other  stripe  of  ab- 
surdity that  stalks  the  land  often  under  the  cloak  of  re- 
ligion, have  so  magnetized  the  eyes  of  man  that  he  sees 
nothing  better,  higher  and  purer. 

Today,  materialism  has  lost  not  a  bit  of  the  old  em- 
phasis of  its  personality,  although  people  strug-^le  hard 


COV STRUCT IV E  IDEALISM  ©1 

to  dress  it  up  in  a  clean  shirt  and  present  it  to  the  world 
at  large  under  the  guise  of  religion.  Today,  more  than 
ever,  is  the  grim  hand  of  the  butcher  clotted  with  gore 
and  shambles  reek  with  the  blood  of  innocent  animals. 
The  cry  transpierces  the  heavens,  yet  the  ears  of  man 
are  hermetically  sealed.  Today,  more  than  ever,  does 
a  pious  demeanor  cover  scarlet  indulgence.  Indeed ! 
Man  is  lifting  the  veil  from  dark  proceedings  and  striv- 
ing to  justify  them  to  our  eyes.  Hence,  more  misery, 
more  pain. 

Is  it  possible  then  to  go  beyond  the  lower  Xature? 
Not  to  flatter  the  intellect  by  feeding  it  upon  dirty  and 
unclean  garbage,  but  to  expand  it  to  the  light  of  Eea- 
son;  not  to  pass  the  lazy  hour  but  to  press  it  into  sub- 
stantial service ;  not  to  pander  to  the  flesh  but  to  render 
it  a  clean  and  fitting  temple  for  the  sojourn  of  the 
spirit;  not  to  flinch  from  pain  in  creep-mouse  style, 
but  to  face  it  resolutely,  if  need  be,  and  make  it  yield 
up  its  last  lesson;  not  to  move  along  lines  of  least  re- 
sistance but  to  set  the  will  against  all  else;  not  to  wish 
for  and  accept  ease  but  to  live  and  breathe  for  the  joy 
of  others: — this  line  of  plain-living  and  high  thinking 
is  a  decided  step  out  of  a  chalk  circle  of  imbecility  into 
strong  doing. 

You  have  to  develop  a  life-purpose.  Our  work  is  our 
life-preserver.  Remember:  'TLife  only  avails,  not  the 
having  lived.  Power  ceases  in  the  instant  of  repose:  it 
resides  in  the  moment  of  transition  from  a  past  state 
into  a  new  state,  in   the  shooting  of  the  gulf,  in  the 


92        DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

darting  to  an  aim."  You  must  reach  ont  to  the  highest 
and  the  best  within  the  sphere  of  your  vision.  Thus 
alone  can  you  stand  out  of  the  deep  rut  formed  by  ages 
of  crass  ignorance.  Your  ideal  must  compel  your  entire 
being.  There  must  be  tugging  hard  at  the  center  of 
5'our  being  and  earnest  longing  to  live  up  to  the  highest 
within  you. 

Perhaps  it  is  the  flesh  that  reacts  so  viciously  upon 
your  efforts,  your  doings  and  thinkings.  Perhaps  it  is 
a  hypersensitive  nervous  s3-stem  that  has  dragged  you 
on  to  a  low  plane  of  living.  Perhaps  it  is  a  weak  mind 
that  would  neither  be  coaxed  out,  nor  dragged  out,  nor 
be  lashed  out  of  its  chronic  condition  of  tearfulness, 
general  depression,  sluggishness,  despair  and  melan- 
choly, worry,  hurry  and  flvirry,  jealousy,  fretfulness,  and 
all-consuming  hatred,  that  sees  obstacles  where  there 
are  none :  that  is  so  delicately  hinged  that  a  slight 
feather's  weight  tips  the  beam ;  or  a  breath  of  air  flings 
wide  the  doors  to  perdition  and  you  are  sent  flying  into 
the  Slough  of  Despond.  Perhaps  anxious  thoughts  loom 
large,  threaten  and  then  destroy  repose. 

"What  a  catalogue  of  weaknesses  in  human  nature! 
Yet,  is  it  not  all  fact  ?  Morbid  thoughts,  impure  de- 
sires, self-pity,  painful  introspection,  continual  antici- 
pation of  perpetual  loss,  constant  dwelling  on  a  lazy 
ideal^  pessimism,  causeless  apprehensions, — all  these 
and  many  more  are  the  pitiless  enemies  and  life  long 
associates  of  a  negative,  resistless,  nerveless,  will-less 
cast  of  mind; — a  mind  void  of  stamina, — a  character 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  93 

i)ui  of  joint  with  the  laws  of  right-living  and  right- 
fchinlving.  Heredit}',  environmental  conditions,  emo- 
tion, and  ignorance; — all  contribute  their  quota  to  the 
emasculation  of  man's  resistant  forces.  Fact  is,  men 
are  as  lazy  as  they  dare  to  be.  If  they  work  at  all,  there 
must  be  a  strong  incentive  to  back  up  their  sudden  fit 
of  activity.  It  is  the  prospect  of  an  ease-living,  lazy 
life  that  allures  them  to  activity.  It  is  a  long  spell  of 
active  inactivity  that  most  people  want.  No  wonder 
their  powers  of  resistance  are  in  a  state  of  atrophy ! 
ISTo  wonder  they  land  themselves  in  a  vicious  circle ! 
Truly,  most  truly,  has  it  been  said  that  an  idle  brain  is 
the  devil's  workshop.  Now,  reader,  are  you  one  such? 
I  hope  not.  But,  if  so,  why  so  ?  Listen  to  one  of  Maeter- 
link's  symbolic  stories. 

In  the  middle  ages  there  lived  a  powerful  man  who 
was  impressed  by  the  fact  that  each  wish  that  he  had 
conceived  had  caused  him  years  of  toil,  struggle,  and 
hard  exertion  before  it  could  be  accomplished  and 
that,  too,  when  he  was  on  the  verge  of  failure.  He 
could  not  understand  why  success  was  so  hard  to 
achieve.  He  thought  hard  and  searched  much.  At  last 
he  felt  that  there  was  a  secret  enemy  that  constantly 
antagonised  him.  He  determined  to  find  him  out  and 
crush  him.  The  rugged  side  of  life  repelled  him.  He 
wished  to  press  on  to  the  fascinating  by-ways  of  pleas- 
ure and  ease.  Life  under  old  c-onditions  was  not  worth 
living.  This  barrier  removed,  he  could  be  happy.  One 
evening  while  out  walking  he  saw  a  man  approaching 


94       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

him  and  he  "intuitively,  identified"  him  as  his  evil  ge- 
nius. He  resolved  to  destroy  him.  When  he  came 
closer,  his  enemy  was  discovered  as  being  masked  so 
that  none  could  see  his  features.  "You  are  the  man," 
said  he,  in  resolute  tones,  "who  from  my  youth  has  been 
thwarting  my  purposes  and  nearly  defeating  me.  I  am 
resolved  to  kill  you,  and  yet  am  constrained  to  give  you 
a  single  chance  for  life.  Draw  and  defend  yourself." 
"I  am  at  your  service,"  replied  the  stranger,  as  he  drew 
his  sword,  "but  before  we  fight,  I  want  you  to  identify 
me."  Upon  which  he  drew  ofE  his  mask  and  the  chal- 
lenger found  that  he  stood  before  himself:  "Thought." 
So  it  is  with  all  of  us.  Do  you  remember  that  song 
of  Omar  Khayaam's: 

I  sent  my  soul  into  the  Invisible, 
Some  message  of  the  after-life  to  spell. 
And  by-and-by  my  soul  returned  to  me, 
And  answered  'I  myself  am  heav'n  and  hell.' 
There  you  are !    Nothing  could  be  more  pointed.    We 
men  and  women  carry  our  own  racks  and  stretch  our- 
selves thereupon  as  often  as  we  dash  up  against  the 
immutable  laws  of  God.     Whose  aid  would  you  invoke? 
The  question  that  I  would  put  to  you  is :    Are  you  vic- 
timisable?    Are  you  willingly  so?    Are  you  waiting  for 
things  to  drop  from  the  skies?     Ten  to  one,  you  are. 
Then  there  is  no  way  out,  indeed !     The  first  requisite 
in  Constructive  Idealism  is  self-reliance.     You  simply 
must  kick  away  all  props.    You  must  stand  upon  your 
own  feet.    Thus  poised  you  are  at  the  top  of  your  condi- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  96 

tion.  Once  you  have  nerved  yourself  to  fight  your  battles 
on  your  own  private  strength,  I  see  no  limits  to  your 
ascending  force.  This  determination  will  arm  you  with 
weapons  none  can  conquer.  All  depends  upon  the 
strength,  intensity  and  elasticity  of  your  resolution  to 
act  from  your  own  centre.  All  power  resides  in  you. 
This  is  the  first,  last  and  the  only  lesson  the  student  of 
Occultism  has  to  master.  Locked  up  in  your  soul  is  to  be 
found  Infinite  Knowledge,  Infinite  Existence,  Infinite 
Bliss.  The  more  you  learn  to  tap  your  soul-forces  with 
confidence  the  surer  your  power  over  yourself  and  hence 
over  others. 

Each  soul,  individually,  exists  on  earth  to  fulfil  a 
mission  which  it  alone  can  fulfil.  Most  wisely  does 
Dr.  Sanjivi  say  "Your  existence  is  no  accident  but  is  a 
representative  of  Life  and  what  Life  is."  Quite  so. 
You  are  here  because  you  are  (indeed!)  a  necessity,  an 
indispensable  something  which  nature  requires  for  the 
execution  of  certain  designs.  No  more  of  foreign  sup- 
ports»  then.  You  have  to  stand  alone;  thus  alone  will 
strength  flow  into  your  veins.  All  power  is  inborn.  It 
is  never  an  accretion  from  without.  Those  that  go  ca- 
reering madly  into  the  external  world  are  like  men 
standing  upon  their  heads  instead  of  on  their  feet. 
Those  that  turn  ever  inwards  for  inspiration,  for 
strength,  stand  aright,  command  their  limbs,  and  work 
miracles.  They  are  as  firm  columns  sustaining  im- 
mense fabrics.  Yes,  cat-like  you  must  ever  fall  upon 
your  feet.     Trust  yourself  and  in  the  endless  mutation 


96       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

of  things  you  shall  discover  that  naught  can  establish 
yo'u  in  peace  but  yourself.  Do  you  remember  Napo- 
leon's masterly  advice  to  his  elder  brother  Joseph?  It 
was  compressed  in  two  words:  "Be  Master."  Sturdy 
natures  are  not  leaning  willows.  They  act  from  within, 
from  themselves.  It  is  these  that  shed  healing  by  their 
mere  presence.  It  is  these  that  have  tossed  over- 
board idolatries,  customs  and  conventions.  They  do 
not  seek  for  compassion.  Indeed  they  resent  all  gratis 
sympathy.  With  self-trust  new  powers  are  born.  For 
everything  at  the  core  is  wrought  out  of  one  hidden 
stuff.  AYe  read  in  our  scriptures  how  Uddalaka  taugiifc 
his  son  this  truth  by  salt  dissolved  in  water.  The  boy 
was  required  to  take  a  solution  of  salt  and  water.  Next 
day  the  father  asked  him  for  the  salt.  The  boy  could 
not  find  it.  "Taste  from  the  top,"  said  the  father.  "It 
is  saltish,"  replied  the  boy.  "Taste  from  the  middle  of 
the  water."  "It  is  saltish,"  replied  the  boy.  "Taste 
from  tlie  bottom,"  enjoined  the  father.  "It  is  saltish." 
Now,  so  it  is  with  the  Universal  Soul — the  Over-Soul. 
It  is  the  One,  the  indivisible  Spirit  running  through 
entire  nature,  vivifying  all,  sustaining  all,  evolving  in 
all.  It  is  this  bridge  that  spans  the  "gulf"  that  Tyndall 
said  could  never  be  bridged  over.  The  salt  disappeared 
but  it  pervaded  the  entire  water.  Then  Uddalaka  said, 
"It  is  the  Universal  Self,  0  Svethaketu !  Thou  art 
That."    True. 

The  naturalist  is  right  in  his  tracing  of  the  same 
type  under  every  metamorphosis.     A  horse  is  a  running 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  97 

man.  A  fish  is  a  swimming  man.  A  bird  is  a  flying 
man.  A  tree  is  a  rooted  man.  So  says  Emerson.  Fur- 
ther, to  believe  your  own  tliought,  to  believe  that  what  is 
true  for  you  in  your  private  heart  is  true  for  all  men 
— that  is  genius.  Is  it  not  high  time  then  that  you  re- 
solved to  take  yourself  for  better,  for  worse?  In 
rejecting  yourself,  in  wishing  that  you  were  Mr.  or 
Mrs.  So-and-So  instead  of  what  you  are,  in  imitating 
others,  in  bemoaning  your  lot,  you  are  denying  God 
in  the  only  form  He  can  ever  express  in  ]\Ian — Faith — 
Faith-in-your-self.  Said  Vivekananda,  'Have  that  tre- 
mendous faith  in  yourself  which  I  had  when  I  was  a 
child  and  I  have  been  working  it  out  in  my  life! 
I  have  quoted  from  memory.  Yet  I  well  remember 
those  words,  "Tremendous  faith  in  yourself."  Listen 
again,  "There  is  a  time  in  every  man's  education  when 
he  arrives  at  the  conviction  that  envy  is  ignorance ;  that 
imitation  is  suicide; — that  though  the  whole  universe 
is  full  of  good,  no  kernel  of  nourishing  corn  can  come 
to  him  but  through  his  toil  bestowed  on  that  piece  of 
ground  which  is  given  to  him  to  till."  We  know  our- 
selves only  when  we  have  tried  to  do  so  and  not  before. 
Therefore  say,  "Henceforth  things  must  take  a  new 
scale  from  me.  I  obey  no  law  but  what  is  sanctioned 
by  my  own  judgment.  I  am  a  disembodied  spirit  work- 
ing, living  and  breathing  for  whatever  is  related  to  me 
by  spiritual  affinity.  I  care  little  for  this  world  with 
its  thousand-cloven  tongues  of  gratis  advice,  praise  and 
censure.    I  can  but  obey  my  polarity.     I  want  nothing. 


98        DEVELOriyO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOVSNESIS 

I  seek  strength  in  chastity.  I  seek  wisdom  in  the  si- 
lence of  my  own  heart.  Death  shall  wring  from  me 
but  one  pang  and  not  even  that  if  I  can  help  it.  I  shall 
be  calm.  Naught  shall  ruffle  my  calm.  For  each  time 
I  feel  the  stabs  of  anxiety  and  remorse  I  die.  The 
Lord  is  my  refuge.  I  can  only  live  under  His  con- 
trol.'"' This  is  the  doctrine  of  fearlessness.  For  says 
Zoroaster:  "To  the  persevering  mortal  the  blessed  im- 
mortals are  swift."  Some  men  think  they  can  well  af- 
ford to  be  laz}^,  since  everyone  is  working  and  so  far  as 
1  am  concerned  I  do  not  see  why  all  life  should  be  labor. 
This  is  a  serious  self-deception  indeed !  Our  .share  of 
work  is  to  persevere  in  the  path  of  absolute  purity. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  king  who  had  a  very 
large  number  of  courtiers.  Now  courtiers  are  flatter- 
ers, born  deceivers.  They  all  swore  to  the  king  that 
each  one  of  them  was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  the 
king.  The  king  was  mightily  pleased.  At  this  time 
there  appeared  a  Sanyasin  from  some  place  at  the  King's 
Court.  The  king,  like  all  vain  people,  told  the  Sanya- 
sin that  there  never  before  had  been  a  king  for  whom 
his  entire  number  of  courtiers  was  ready  to  sacrifice 
their  lives.  The  Sanyasin  smiled  incredulously  and  told 
our  king  that  he  did  not  believe  it.  "Put  them  to  the 
test,"  said  the  king.  The  Sanyasin  then  had  it  pro- 
claimed that  he  was  going  to  hold  a  sacrifice  whereby 
great  advantages  would  accrue  to  the  king.  His  only 
condition  was  that  each  courtier  should  go  alone  to  a 
tank  and  pour  a  \      her  of  milk  thereinto  in  the  dark 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  98 

of  night.  "Is  that  all?"  asked  the  king  in  surprise. 
"Yes,"  replied  the  Sanyasin,  Next  morning  the  king 
visited  the  tank  which  instead  of  being  full  of  milk 
was  full  of  water.  Each  one  of  the  courtiers  ha<3 
thought  he  could  afford  to  practice  deception  and 
poured  in  a  pitcherful  of  water. 

So  also  the  present  generation  of  India.  'Oh!  There 
are  great  Yogis  in  the  forest  making  tapas  for  the  good 
of  the  world.  I  need  not  trouble.  I  can  well  be  spared.' 
Xo !  No !  You  cannot  be  spared.  There  is  not  one  soul 
that  can  snap  asunder  the  bond  of  Divine  Brotherhood. 
If  you,  who  are  young  and  vigorous,  are  abusing  your 
advantages  by  letting  them  slip  by  through  your  lazy  and 
selfish  propensities,  then  know  that  a  time  will  come 
wlien  you  will  look  for  them  in  vain.  //  you  ivill  not 
when  you  may,  you  shall  not  when  you  will.  I  see 
young  men  who  have  all  possible  chances  allowed  them. 
Nothing  weighs  upon  their  minds.  Yet  these  complain 
loudest.  Poor  Souls !  Instead  of  working  now  while 
the  sun  shines  upon  them,  they  are  content  to  lead  aim- 
less lives.  Man's  work  is  his  inner  development  and 
unfoldment.  Those  who  are  fully  alive  to  this  fact  can 
never  be  satisfied  with  living  at  low  pressure.  It  is 
the  pitch  at  whicli  a  man  lives  that  counts  most.  Every- 
thing concentrates.  Diffusion  leads  to  confusion.  "Not 
they  that  eat  most,  but  they  that  digest  most  are  the 
most  nourished.  Not  they  that  get  most  but  they  that 
keep  and  give  the  most,  are  the  richest.  So  not  they 
that  hear  most,  or  read  most,  but  they  that  meditate 


100      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

most  and  pray  most  and  in  the  silent  mystic  way  of 
Love  give  out  the  most  are  the  most  edified  and  nour- 
ished and  enriched  unto  everlasting  life,  here,  now,  and 
forever.  "Meditate  upon  these  things,''  and  "As  thy 
days  pass  so  shall  thy  strength  be."  Therefore,  shut 
yourself  up  in  your  room  and  with  strenuous  and  earn- 
est zeal,  go  on  adding  stroke  after  stroke  of  steady  work 
for  your  soul-expression.  Eesults  will  come  in  their 
own  good  time  and  that  moment  is  best  for  you  and  the 
world  when  you  get  great  gleams  of  light  from  youi 
higher  nature. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HIGHER   REASON  AND    JUDGMENT. 

ANOTHER  requisite  is  Fearlessness.  ""WTiat  a  tire- 
some rigmarole  of  requisites !  I  know  it  all  I" 
_you  may  say.  But  you  don't !  I,  too,  thought  so  years 
ago.  You  have  to  take  them  up  and  meditate  upon 
them.  Thus  alone  can  they  become  inwovon  with  your 
nature.  Few  people  possess  this  virtue.  It  lias  to  be 
cultivated  with  assiduous  zeal  before  you  can  proceed 
a  step  further.  Now  just  turn  in  and  examine  yourself 
in  tlie  calm  light  of  reason.  See!  You  have  given  your 
body  first  place  right  along.  You  have  grown  quite 
fond  of  it.  Your  life  consists  in  taking  care  of  and 
v'ielding  to  the  demands  of  your  physical  nature.  No 
wonder  then  that  you  are  still  the  slave  of  carnal  ten- 
dencies. A  force  far  mightier  than  yourself  seems  to 
grip  you,  overbear  your  feeble  will  and  whirl  you  where 
it  will.  Resolve  this  moment  to  be  chaste  and  conti- 
nent in  thought,  word  and  deed,  and  ten  to  one  but  that 
you  will  be  faced  by  a  veritable  host  of  evil  forces  form- 
ing around  you  a  ring-pass-not  from  which  you  cannot 
effect  an  escape;  struggle,  foam,  fume  and  wrestle  as 
you  will.     You  fall  into  quicksands  which  you  would 

101 


102      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

but  cannot  avoid.  You  have  ever  moved  along  lines  of 
least  resistance.  You  fancied  yourself  in  fine  condition 
indeed !  You  laughed  your  vacuous,  unmanly,  ignorant 
laugh  against  those  who  are  ever  serious,  austere,  and 
plodding.  You  considered  these  as  sorely  ridden  hacks 
who  have  naught  of  the  pleasures  of  life  to  engage  them. 
Though  you  quailed  abjectly  beneath  their  sad,  stern 
glance,  you  shot  witty  things  against  them  when  their 
backs  were  turned.  You  had  even  the  impudence  to 
admonish  them  against  austere  and  abstemious  ways. 
Now  the  scales  have  dropped  from  your  eyes :  you  who 
sat  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful  and  passed  judgment  on 
others;  How  you  wish  somebody  would  come  to 
your  rescue  and  lift  you  bodily  out  of  this  Pit  of  Tro- 
phet !  But  mere  lifting  won't  do  at  all.  You  will 
drift  back  again.  You  have  to  be  born  again.  A  spir- 
itual regeneration  is  called  for.  Serious  introspection 
must  be  a  constant  virtue.  "W^y  do  you  fear?  Be- 
cause you  are  afraid  of  Fear,  your  relentless  Hiero- 
phant.  That  is  the  causeless  cause  of  fear.  Secondly 
because  you  are  so  fond  of  your  skin.  Thirdly  because 
Nature  won't  let  you  ofp.  Time  was  when  you  lived, 
breathed  and  enjoyed  evil.  Your  disgraceful  past  is 
reacting  with  all  the  cumulative  force  of  evil-doing  and 
what  is  far  more  heinous,  evil  thinking.  You  have 
heen  running  in  accustomed  grooves.  Xow  is  the  time 
to  turn  over  a  new  leaf.  Your  salvation  lies  in  these: 
1.  First  and  foremost,  resolve  not  to  give  way  to  Fear, 
for  there  is  Nothing  to  fear  but  Fear.     Philosophy  will 


COySTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  103 

come  to  your  help,  as  I  liope  to  show  you  later  on.  2. 
Then  you  must  renounce  your  love  for  the  flesh.  It  is 
a  hard  task.  But  I  can  see  no  other  way  out.  I  shall 
tell  you  the  'how'  of  it.  It  rests  with  you  to  accept  or 
refuse.  3.  Learn  to  be  patient  under  suffering.  Your 
Karma  must  work  itself  out.  But  you  can  neutralise 
its  force  in  proportion  to  your  earnestness  in  following 
my  advice  to  the  letter.  Xow  for  the  remedial  aspect 
of  philosophy. 

The  aim  of  philosophy  is  to  put  an  end  to  pain. 
Your  fear  has,  back  of  it,  a  shrinking  from  pain.  Is 
pain  then  so  unwelcome?  Edward  Carpenter  in  his 
beautiful  poem  "Man  and  Satan"  says  "Every  pain 
that  I  sufl^ered  in  one  body  became  a  power  which  I 
wielded  in  the  next."  Tlie  functions  of  pain  are  five- 
fold. The  nature  of  the  Atman — the  individualised 
self  incarnation — is  all-blissfulness.  Time  is  an  ex- 
crescence. It  is  Xot-self.  The  law  of  evolution  is 
Manifestation.  There  are  two  paths.  The  one  is 
Pravritti.  It  signifies  "revolving  towards."  The  other 
is  "Nivritti:  revolving  away."  The  vast  mass  of  hu- 
manity are  treading  the  former.  The  powers  of  the 
soul  must  be  tiirned  outwards,  focused  upon  the  exter- 
nal world,  in  order  that  it  may  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
it.  The  soul  is  embosemed  in  rapture.  It  is  ever  in- 
ward-turned. In  order  that  it  may  wake  up  from  its 
latent  condition  and  find  expression  physically,  it  must 
be  impinged  upon  by  pain.  If  there  be  a  continued 
influx  of  streams  of  bliss,  no  power  would  manifest. 


104      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Wlien  water  is  allowed  its  free  course,  it  flows  on 
smoothly.  But  just  put  a  bar  across  its  onflow.  How 
it  struggles,  hisses  and  fumes  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
barrier !  Now  you  understand  why  the  will  arms  it- 
self with  sudden  force  when  the  lash  of  disgrace  and 
contumely  stirs  it  up.  The  greater  the  stirring  and  the 
more  continued  the  spasm  of  pain,  the  deeper  the  im- 
pression left  upon  the  memory,  the  fiercer  the  out-put 
of  soul  energy.  When  it  is  a  gentle  twinge  only,  the 
soul  turns  over  like  the  proverbial  sleepy  boy  and  for- 
gets it  instantly.  You  repeat  your  folly.  Now  our 
psychology  fixes  itself  ever  on  the  ultimate  analysis  of 
fact.  Hence  Yyasa  in  his  commentary  on  Patau jili 
gives  pain  the  first  seat  as  an  important  factor  that 
goes  to  build  up  the  Causal  Body — the  Karana  Sharira, 
or  the  receptacle  in  which  lie  all  the  seeds  of  actions — 
the  proper  development  of  which  blazes  the  way  to 
Self-realisation. 

The  first  and  most  important  function  of  pain  is  to 
call  out  the  activity-aspect  of  the  soul.  Remember 
it  has  no  permanent  place.  Take  your  cue  and  learn 
to  love  exertion,  and  pain  shall  not  come.  The  next 
function  of  pain  is  to  establish  rythmic  conditions  in 
the  physical  form.  It  organises  the  body  aright.  I 
have  told  you  in  my  paper  on  "Man's  Divine  Heritage" 
how  the  transition  to  peace  must  always  be  through 
struggle  and  painful  fighting.  Says  the  Lord  Sri 
Krishna  in  the  Bhagavad  Gita: — 1.  That  is  like  poi- 
son at  first,  but  nectar  at  the  end,  that  happiness  is  de- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  105 

blared  Satvic,  born  of  the  translucense  of  the  intellect 
due  to  Self-realisation.  2.  That  which  arises  from 
the  contact  of  object  with  sense,  at  first  like  nectar,  but 
at  the  end  like  poison,  that  happiness  is  declared  to  be 
Eajasic.  3.  That  happiness  which  begins  and  ends  in 
self-delusion  arising  from  sleep,  indolence  and  miscom- 
prehension, that  is  declared  to  be  Tamasic.  4.  There 
is  no  entity  on  earth,  or  again  in  heaven  among  the 
Devas  that  is  devoid  of  these  three  Gunas,  born  of 
Trakriti.  5.  Control  of  mind  and  senses,  austerity, 
purity,  forbearance,  and  also  uprightness,  knowledge, 
realisation,  belief  in  the  hereafter — these  are  the  ways 
of  the  Satvic. 

Thus  you  see  that  the  putting  forth  of  positive  effort, 
spoken  of  already,  will  go  to  effectively  shake  out  the 
grosser  and  coarsened  forms  of  vibrations  in  the  body. 
Exertion  will  organise  your  brain,  develop  and  unfold 
its  powers.  The  grind  of  intellectual  training  means 
pain  in  its  exquisite  form  for  the  tamasic  man.  Aus- 
tere living  is  just  what  man  hates.  Sense-pleasures  he 
eagerly  seeks.  Just  as  exercise  in  the  physical  sense  is 
painful  to  begin  with,  so  it  causes  more  life  to  flow  into 
your  muscles,  nerves  and  fibres;  and  development  re- 
sults. Nothing  has  seemed  to  you  more  painful  than 
the  deliberate  development  of  the  Will.  It  is  most 
painful  at  first.  Yet,  if  you  have  done  it  or  if  you  ever 
do  it,  you  shall  know  that  the  harmonic  poise  of  the 
Will-power  is  the  mightiest  aspect  of  Power  in  man. 


106      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

Well,  then,  this  is  the  third  function  of  pain.     It  de- 
velops power.     "Power  is  pain  transmuted." 

Read  the  life  of  Napoleon.  There  you  see  the  finest 
manifestation  of  power.  This  man  small  and  insig- 
nificant of  build  commanded  the  rugged  soldiers  as  if 
they  were  infants.  They  were  as  wax  in  his  hands. 
He  could  mould  them  as  he  wished.  Take  this  single 
instance.  Napoleon  hearing  that  the  Bourbons  were 
misgoverning  his  country,  returned  from  his  exile  at 
Elba.  He  had  to  give  the  guards  the  slip.  He  re- 
turned with  no  forces.  He  was  alone  in  the  midst  of 
his  bitterest  enemies,  the  Bourbons.  Troops  were 
drawn  up  to  fight  him.  The  entire  army  had  been 
commanded  to  fire  at  his  breast.  They  were  standing 
• — the  Bourbon  soldiers — with  their  muskets  levelled  at 
his  breast  ready  for  the  command  "Aim."  Napoleon 
on  foot,  alone,  undefended  and  unarmed,  marched  de- 
liberately towards  the  troops  with  measured  tread,  gaz- 
ing directly  into  their  eyes.  The  command  to  "Fire" 
was  shouted  out.  A  single  shot  would  have  killed  him. 
A  fortune  would  have  awaited  the  man  who  fired  it.  If 
the  army  had  obeyed  the  order  no  less  than  forty  thou- 
sand bullets  would  have  entered  Napoleon's  breast. 
But  this  man  flinched  not.  He  undid  the  buttons, 
bared  his  breast  and  stood  within  a  few  yards  facing 
them.  The  whole  army  wavered.  How  could  they 
shoot  this  man  ?  "Fire !"  "Fire ! !"  But  how  could 
they  fire?  They  were  under  this  man's  fascination. 
They  were  spell-bound.     They  couldn't  fire.     Not  one 


CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALISM  107 

man  obeyed  the  order.  Not  one,  mark  you,  out  of 
these  thousands !  They  all  threw  down  their  guns  and 
ran  to  him,  shouting  "Vive  I'Empereur !"  Yet  if  you 
turn  to  this  man's  early  life,  you  see  him  imposing  the 
most  painful  tasks  upon  himself.  For  days  he  would 
go  without  sleep,  rest  and  food,  deeply  absorbed  in 
study.  His  hard  labours  at  his  studies  in  early  life 
dwarfed  his  stature.  His  appearance  at  times,  we  read, 
was  woeful  to  contemplate  because  of  his  painful  hard- 
ships. But  then  there  was  lightning  in  his  eyes  which 
burned  and  flashed  with  the  fire  of  his  spirit.  Truly, 
most  truly,  is  "pain"  transmuted  into  "Power." 

The  Yogi  whose  severe  austerities  strike  you  dumb 
with  surprise  and  horror,  tames  the  lions  and  tigers  of 
the  forest  simply  by  a  look.  In  point  of  fact  all  ad- 
vanced Yogis  have  this  and  thousands  of  other  such 
wonderful  powers.  The  fourth  function  is  that  pain 
purifies.  "Slowly  and  resolutely  as  a  fly  cleans  its  legs 
of  the  honey  in  which  it  has  been  caught — so  remove 
tliou,  if  it  be  only  for  a  time,  every  particle  which  sul- 
lies the  brightness  of  thy  mind.  Eetum  into  thyself 
content  to  give  but  asking  no  one — asking  nothing." 

Now  this  cleansing  process  you  set  about  only  under 
the  crucifixion  of  pain.  Hunipu  nature  is  obdurate. 
For  ages  the  animal  propensities  have  been  developed. 
Unless  drastic  methods  be  employed  they  are  impossi- 
ble of  subjugation.  There  is  nothing  like  pain  as  a 
teacher.  Because  first  it  is  a  purifier.  Once  your  nature 
has  been  passed  through  the  fire  of  su fleering  it  will  have 


108      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

known  the  serious  side  of  life.  It  will  represent 
sterner  stuff  tlian  the  mere  gibbering,  imitative  tenden- 
cies of  the  ape. 

Next  pain  is  a  discipliuer  of  mind  and  body.  Now 
if  you  remember  all  this,  you  will  be  patient  under 
suffering.  You  will  not  tug  and  pull,  gnash  your 
teeth  and  break  down.  You  will  be  indifferent  alike 
to  pain  and  pleasure.  For  as  you  study  and  meditate, 
as  wisdom  opens  out  to  your  vision,  you  shall  see  that 
there  is  ever  a  cause  behind.  You  shall  go  on  calmly 
working  for  higher  ends,  not  waiting  for  release  as  a 
condition  of  work. 

Then  there  are  other  reasons  why  you  should  not  give 
way  to  fear.  Says  Professor  James  "There  is  no  sort 
of  consciousness  whatever,  be  it  sensation,  feeling  or 
idea,  which  does  not  directly  and  of  itself  discharge 
into  some  motor  effect."  Says  Tichner  "It  is  a  rule 
without  exception  that  every  mental  process  has  in  its 
condition  a  bodily  process,  some  change  in  the  central 
nervoiTS  system  and  more  particularly  in  the  cerebral 
cortex.  No  psychosis  without  neurosis.  There  is  no 
mental  state  which  has  not  a  peculiar  nervous  state 
corresponding  to  it."  A  Mental  Healer  of  wide  influ- 
ence says  "Just  as  truly  as  faith  is  a  talisman  by  which 
we  can  successfully  conjure,  so  is  fear  a  palsy  by  which 
disaster  is  insured."  Rev.  Tarley  T.  "Womer  tells  us 
the  following  story :  It  is  said  that  a  certain  man 
tried  to  kill  his  wife  by  throwing  her  from  a  boat  while 
they  were  crossing  a  river.     The   woman  kept  herself 


COA' STRUCT  J  VE  WEALH^Al  109 

from  sinking  by  holding  on  to  the  side  of  the  boat. 
In  his  furious  rage  the  man  struck  lier  with  an  axe  and 
severed  two  of  her  fingers.  But  somehow  she  was  res- 
cued and  later  on  a  reconciliation  was  effected  and  they 
lived  together  happily.  But  for  several  succeeding 
generations  every  male  child  that  was  born  to  the  fam- 
ily had  two  fingers  missing. 

Your  thoughts  effect  your  body  just  as  they  shape 
your  destiny.  Fear  thoughts,  worrisome  and  melan- 
choly thoughts  destroy  brain  cells  and  smash  dowa  the 
tissue  walls,  take  the  light  out  of  your  eyes,  poison  your 
blood,  lower  your  vitality  and  write  0  Coward !  Cow- 
ard ! !  on  your  forehead.  Whereas  the  positive  will  is 
a  strong  shield  from  which  all  destructive  forces  glance 
off  like  so  many  wisps  of  straw.  So  long  as  we  cling 
to  this  body,  we  give  the  spirit  but  small  chance  of  as- 
serting itself.  Our  thoughts  are  bound  to  the  physical 
and  carnal  side  of  life.  Our  eyes  have  the  mud  of  ma- 
terialism in  them.  But  just  register  a  vow  that  you 
will  ever  contemplate  and  stand  by  the  Spirit,  and  try 
ever  to  realise  it  and  the  heavens  will  clear  out  for 
you.  Life,  though  serious  and  stem,  shall  reflect  power ; 
shall  shed  healing  and  flash  with  the  light  of  the 
Spirit.  If  not,  why  not?  Because,  sir,  you  are  still 
not  earnest,  still  animalised.  I  say  "It  is  possible. 
Perfectly  possible."  I  have  a  right  to  say  it.  I  have 
seen  it  with  my  own  eyes.  Others  do  it.  Why  can't 
you?  Nature's  laws  are  rigid  and  uniform  in  their 
working.     Wliat  one  man  can   do  others  must  be  able 


110      l>i:\  L'LOl'IXa  til'lRlTL'AL  C0XSCI0USNES8 

to  do.  Instead  of  one  man,  thousands  of  the  children 
of  India  are  doing  it. 

All  aspirants  after  Occultism  have  to  set  before  them- 
selves as  a  first  step  the  conquest  of  the  physical  nature. 
The  Sanyasin  is  not  permitted  to  remain  under  the 
same  roof  for  more  than  a  day; — at  the  most  three 
days.  He  has  given  up  his  body.  He  knows  it  is  the 
mortal,  the  grosser  side  of  his  nature.  He  trains  it 
after  certain  methods;  purifies  and  subdues  it, — that 
done,  he  is  free.  He  is  non-attached.  He  is  the  mas- 
ter. He  can  turn  tlie  full  current  of  his  life-forces 
upon  a  single  thought,  and  so  vitalise  it  with  the  elec- 
tric principle  in  himself  that  it  shall  have  all  the  po- 
tency of  the  charged  wires  of  a  dynamo. 

There  has  gone  out  a  foolish  and  unpardonable  im- 
pression from  some  ignorant  Western  writers  that  the 
Yogi  is  an  air- fed,  emaciated,  human  wreck.  Yes ! 
You  "Westerns  would  give  way  under  these  practices. 
You  who  are  such  staunch  believers  in  nourishment  and 
nutrition  could  hardly  believe  the  Swami  Dharmananda 
Mahavarati  when  he  says :  In  the  beginning  of  the 
3'ear  18.  .  I  formed  the  acquaintance  of  a  Yogi  who  was 
then  in  his  260th  year.  In  another  v'ear  on  my  way 
from  Afghanistan  I  was  highly  delighted  at  seeing  a 
Join  woman  (a  Yogini)  whose  age  could  be  ascertained 
from  her  eyelashes  which  grew  again  but  had  not  turned 
grey.  She  was  about  500  years  old !  Barth  on  yoga 
exercises  says  "I  conscientiously  observed  they  can  only 
end  in  follv  and  idiocy."     Professor  Huxlev  calls  them 


DEVELOPiyO  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOUSNESS  111 

delusions !  The  face  of  Vivekanauda  is  not  a  strange 
one  to  my  American  readers.  Is  that  inspiring  ap- 
pearance indicative  of  mental  aberration?  Xow  listen 
to  his  account  of  himself:  Many  times  I  have  been  in 
the  jaws  of  death,  starving,  footsore  and  weary;  for  days 
and  days  I  had  liad  no  food  !  and  often  could  walk  no 
farther;  I  would  sink  down  under  a  tree  and  life  would 
seem  ebbing  away.  I  could  not  speak,  I  could  scarcely 
think,  but  at  last  the  mind  would  revert  to  the  idea: 
"I  have  no  fear  of  death ;  I  never  hunger  nor  thirst. 
The  whole  of  nature  cannot  crush  me ;  it  is  my  servant. 
Assert  thy  strength,  thou  Lord  of  Lords !  Regain  thy 
lost  empire !  Arise  and  walk  and  stop  not,  and  I  would 
rise  up,  reinvigorated,  and  here  am  I,  living  today. 
This  is  our  Swamin !  Strong  as  a  rock  and  one  of 
India's  Yogis.  This  man  lived  in  mountain  caves  for 
years.  He  climbed  over  the  mountains  on  foot  to 
Thibet.  He  is  by  no  means  a  solitary  instance.  Now 
reader !  If  you  are  wise,  you  will  meditate  day  after 
day  on  these  things.  The  practical  lessons  will  follow. 
In  the  meantime  fear  not. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CONQUEST   OF  FEAE. 

"There  is  Nothing  to  Fear  But  Fear." 

Fear  is  one  of  the  cardinal  emotions  that  result  from 
the  play  of  certain  forces  in  the  human  personality. 
Our  emotional  nature  is  not  our  Self.  I  was  amused 
to  read  in  a  Phrenological  magazine  various  remarks 
from  certain  learned  Westerners  on  the  nature  and  at- 
tributes of  the  Soul.  The  cjuestion  was  "What  is  the 
Soul?"  One  of  the  writers  insisted  upon  having  this 
theory  accepted  by  his  readers:  that  the  soul  has  its 
seat  in  the  organs  of  Philoprogenitiveness  and  Friend- 
ship. Another  one  defines  these  two  words  as  (1)  Pa- 
rental Love  and  (2)  Sociability  and  Union  of  Friends. 
To  my  readers  the  fallacy  of  their  statements  ought  to 
be  quite  plain.  Our  emotions,  Love  (in  the  lower 
phases),  Hate,  Anger,  Fear,  etc.,  bear  a  direct  relation 
to  the  external  world.  Wlien  the  Intellect  dwells  upon 
a  desire  with  a  view  to  externalise  or  realise  the  latter, 
emotion  results.  It  is  thus  the  reaction  of  the  Ego  upon 
sense-impressions  received  from  the  objective  universe. 
They  have  a  purely  physio-psychological  origin  and  must 
not  be  confused  with  our  Soul-processes  which  are  due  to 

112 


CONQUEST  OF  FEAR  118 

the  Divine  Urge  from  within,  ever  impelling  the  Spirit 
to  express  itself  upon  matter  through  more  and  more  im- 
proved types  of  personalit}'.  Stop  right  now  and  un- 
derstand :  Your  mission  was  to  energise  upon  mattei-, 
to  be  master  and  not  slaves.  But  instead  of  setting 
about  your  business  like  a  master  you  took  hold  of  the 
wrong  end  of  the  stick  and  became  attached,  nay,  iden- 
tified yourself  with  your  forms.  This  is  the  supreme 
tragedy  of  Maya:    Man  forgot  himself. 

'W'Tiat  was  the  result?  Ignorance; — and  that  devel- 
oped fear.  Just  view  yourself  from  a  physical  stand- 
point. "Wliat  are  you  ?  Are  you  any  more  than  a  geom- 
etrical point,  a  mere  human  atom  in  a  sea  of  tremen- 
dous forces  that  could  crush  you — the  form  of  flesh — in 
no  time.  There  are  monsters — seismic  disturbances, 
cataclysms,  earthquakes,  famines,  gravity,  lightning  and 
Avhat  not !  I  need  hardly  mention  the  Halley's  comet 
scare  to  illustrate  my  point.  There  is  no  escaping  it 
that  way.  Consider  yourself  as  a  sack  of  blood,  bone, 
muscle,  cell-stuff  and  nerve  force  and  you  are  eternally 
damned. 

No,  the  remedy  lies  the  other  way.  That  remedy  is 
a  sovereign  remedy.  You  must  give  up  your  life,  if  you 
are  to  live  truly.  Sri  Krishna  taught  it  in  the  Gita. 
He  called  it  Vairagya:  Dispassion:  ISTon-attachment : 
Eenunciation.  Here  is  the  antidote.  Open  your  Gita 
and  read,  "Weapons  pierce  not  the  Eeal  Man  nor  doth 
the  fire  burn  him ;  the  water  affecteth  him  not ;  nor  the 
wind   drieth   him,   nor  bloweth  him  away.     For  he   is 


114      DEVELOP' XG  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOUSXESS 

impregnable  and  impervious  to  these  tilings  of  change 
— he  is  eternal,  permanent,  unchangeable  and  unaltera- 
ble—and Real." 

You  must  understand  yoiir  own  nature,  if  you  are  to 
be  Fearless.  How?  You  will  at  once  ask  me  that  ques- 
tion. My  answer  is:  Learn  to  draw  inwards  and  up- 
wards. The  lower  mind  ever  darts  outwards.  This  is 
the  sense-born  brain  that  you  read  of  in  Western  works 
on  Psychology  generally.  It  rests  on  sensation.  It  is 
enthralled  by  the  limitations  of  temperament,  heredity, 
environment,  and  the  sheaths  and  clogs  of  organization. 
It  can  only  function  on  the  plane  of  Instinctivity.  The 
way  to  conquer  this  mind  was  pointed  out  in  the  Gita 
when  Arjuna  complained  that  it  was  impetuous,  hard 
to  crib  as  the  wind,  ever  moving  outwards,  ever  restless. 
The  warrior  prince  was  famed  for  his  prowess;  had 
faced  strong  foes  and  vanquished  them;  yet  even  he  cow- 
ered before  the  impetuous  rush  of  this  mind;  even  he 
broke  down  in  despair.     Why  not? 

Look  at  the  so-called  great  men  of  modem  times. 
How  full  of  pride  and  approach-me-at-your-peril  sort 
of  hauteur  they  are !  Just  watch  them  when  their  "ma- 
terial" or  "social"  self  stands  threatened  by  some  ap- 
proaching danger.  Gone  is  their  inflated  self-esteem. 
The  whip  has  not  yet  been  applied ;  yet  they  shrink  be- 
fore the  terrors  of  their  imagination.  Let  me  say  once 
more,  that  the  worldly  man,  the  purse-proud  man,  is 
proud  and  conceited  because  his  mind  is  befogged  with 
the  fumes  of  ignorance;   a  moment  shall   come  when 


CONQUEST  OF  FEAR  115 

he  shall  have  to  face  the  terrors  of  his  animal  soul !  then 
he  must  fight  on  his  individual  strength ;  he  will  cry  for 
help  from  outside  but  none  shall  come;  the  world  of 
the  senses  which  ensnared  his  mind  so  long,  shall  drop 
away;  and  the  Higher  Self  must  then  overcome  the 
Lower.  ]\Iany  are  the  birth-pangs,  but  the  end, — the 
goal — justifies  the  means. 

iSTow  turn  to  Shri  Krishna's  reply,  which  alone  can 
solve  this  riddle  for  you:  Without  doubt,  0  Mighty- 
armed,  the  mind  is  hard  to  curb  and  restless  but  it  may 
be  curbed  by  constant  practice  (Abhyasa)  and  dispas- 
sion  (Vairagya).  The  student  must  renounce,  once  for 
ever,  all  that  pertains  to  his  Lower  Self  and  thus  pull 
up  the  weeds  that  crowd  the  soil  of  his  mind.  The 
supreme  result  of  Eenunciation  is  that  it  enables  you  to 
leap  from  your  present  position,  where  there  are  a  thou- 
sand strings  tugging  at  your  heart;  and  prepares  the 
way  for  the  inrush  of  higher,  loftier  thoughts.  By  prac- 
tice is  meant  constant  and  unremitting  effort  at  control 
of  the  mind,  which,  by  the  way,  is  a  science  by  itself 
and  may  be  handled  later  on. 

Now,  brother,  renounce  mentally,  all  attachment  to 
impermanent  ends.  Dedicate  yourself  to  the  Higher 
Life.  The  more  completely  you  can  do  so,  the  greater 
the  influx  of  light,  the  clearer  your  vision  spiritually. 
You  fear  because  you  are  laboring  under  the  evil  sug- 
gestions of  your  brain-born  intellect.  As  you  succeed 
in  "giving  up,"  your  soul  shall  expand  and  burst  asun- 


116      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

der  'the  clinging  chains  of  the  senses/  which  breed  Fear 
through  Ignorance.  Eesolve,  to  be  perfectly  "Fearless" 
and  so  shall  you  be  according  to  the  strength  of  your 
resolution. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  ROLE   OF   PRAYER. 

0  Lord  purify  us  with  water,  purify  us  with  solar  rays, 
purify  us  with  medicinal  herbs  and,  above  all,  purify 
us  with  Wisdom,  i.  e.,  endow  us  with  POWERS  OF 
]\IIND  by  enlightening  our  intellects. — Rig  Veda — 
viii,  19-2. 

HOW  exquisitely  painful  are  the  effects  of  Ignorance. 
Many  are  the  victims,  many  the  bond  slaves  of 
their  lower  selves.  Many  are  the  wrecks  awaiting  an 
early  grave  and  looking  forward  to  the  time  when  Death 
shall  come  as  a  welcome  relief.  Many  walk  the  earth 
with  an  uneasy  Conscience,  starting  with  sudden  fright 
at  their  own  shadows  and  conscious  all  the  while  as  if 
the  brand  of  Cain  had  burnt  its  mark  on  their  brows. 
Many  are  even  now  undergoing  tbe  tortures  of  Hell  in 
the  fierce  conflicts  raging  in  their  souls.  Many  close 
their  eyes  when  the  cold  hands  of  Death  have  seized 
upon  them  with  this  suddening  cry,  "To  what  end  have 

1  lived  ?  Alas !  I  die  as  ignorant  as  I  was  born.  All 
my  fond  wishes  have  vanished  into  thin  vapor,  all  my 
long  cherished  aims  have  been  shattered  into  pieces." 
Such  are  the  woes  of  Mankind — God's  children. 

WHY  ? 

"Ignorance  is  the  only  soil  where  Evils  can  gi'ow  and 
germinate" — so   says   Patanjili.      The    misdirection    of 

117 


118       DEVELOriyO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

i*sature's  forces  entails  misery,  pain  and  sorrow.  These 
latter  seem  quite  in  advance  of  the  enormity  of  the  mis- 
take. ""\Miy  should  I  be  smitten  so  hard  for  a  little 
thing  like  that?"  that  is  the  angry  protest  of  the  suf- 
ferer. I  shall  take  it  that  you  have  aspired  after  noble 
heights  of  Spiritual  Development  and  the  PEACE  con- 
sequent thereupon.  As  Emerson  puts  it :  "Let  us  say 
then  frankly  that  the  education  of  the  Will  is  the  ob- 
ject of  our  existence.  Poverty,  the  prison,  the  rack,  the 
fire,  the  hatred  and  execration  of  our  fellow-men  appear 
trials  beyond  the  endurance  of  common  humanity,  but 
to  the  hero  whose  intellect  is  aggrandized  by  the  Soul, 
and  so  measures  the  good  which  his  thought  surveys 
against  these  penalties; — the  terrors  vanish  as  darkness 
at  sunrise." 

Have  you  ever  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  peace  that 
passeth  all  understanding  ?  Let  us  listen  attentively  to 
what  a  noble  thinker  says :  "There  are  moments,  su- 
preme and  rare  moments,  that  come  to  the  life  of  the 
pure  and  the  spiritual  when  every  sheath  (the  material 
coatings  in  and  through  which  the  spirit  impresses  its 
will  upon  the  Objective  Universe)  is  still  and  harmoni- 
ous; when  the  senses  are  tranquil,  quiet,  insensitive; 
when  the  mind  is  serene,  calm,  and  unchanging;  when, 
fixed  in  meditation,  the  whole  being  is  steady  and  noth- 
ing that  is  without  may  avail  to  disturb;  when  love  has 
permeated  every  fibre;  when  devotion  has  illuminated, 
so  that  the  whole  nature  is  translucent;  there  is  a  si- 
lence and  in  the  silence  is  a  sudden  change;  no  words 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  119 

may  tell  it;  no  syllable  may  utter  it,  but  the  diange  is 
there;  all  limitations  have  fallen  away.  Every  limit  of 
every  kind  has  vanished.  As  stars  swing  in  boimdless 
space,  the  self  is  in  limitless  life  and  knows  no  limits 
and  realizes  no  bounds.  There  is  light  in  wisdom,  con- 
sciousness of  perfect  light  that  knows  no  shadoAV  and 
therefore  knows  not  itself  a  slight;  the  thinker  has  be- 
come the  knower ;  all  reason  has  vanished  and  all- wisdom 
has  taken  its  place.  Who  shall  say  what  it  is  save  that 
it  is  bliss  ?  Who  shall  try  to  utter  that  which  is  unut- 
terable in  mortal  speech — but  it  is  true  and  it  exists, 
.  .  .  Its  nature  is  bliss ;  all  the  spheres  have  ceased ; 
all  else  has  gone;  none  but  the  pure  may  reach  it;  none 
but  the  devotee  may  know  it;  none  but  the  wise  may 
enter  it." 

Such  indeed  is  the  ineffable  sense  of  power  serene 
that  folds  its  wings  arotmd  the  earnest  Yogi.  The  rest- 
less world  with  its  warring  interests,  its  corroding  pas- 
sions, its  bloody  wars,  its  existence  of  want-and-have,  of 
buy-and-sell,  of  self-love,  greed  and  eternal  heart-burn, 
seems  to  lose  its  jar  and  shock  in  the  presence  of  this 
tremendous  spiritual  force.  How  can  it  be  otherwise? 
I  take  it  that  your  gaze  is  fixed  with  earnest  longing 
upon  the  eternal;  that  your  intellect  has  expanded  to 
the  liglit  of  the  spiritual  illumination,  yet, — I  cannot 
help  feeling  it — so  imperfectly,  that  my  aim  is,  in  these 
short  papers,  to  point  out  to  you  the  "How"  rather  than 
the  ""UHiy;"  since,  from  my  point  of  view,  the  former 
alone  solves  the  latter;  realization  alone  vanquishes  the 


130      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

weapons  of  skepticism  and  doubt.  "Steadfastly  by 
truth,  by  austerity,  by  perfect  wisdom,  by  Brahmacha- 
rva-practice  (Perfect  Chastity)  is  this  atma  attained. 
In  tlie  midst  of  the  body,  clad  in  light.  He  whom  the 
sinless  and  the  subdued  behold  is  pure." — (Mundako- 
panishad). 

Feel  convinced,  student,  that  the  emotion  which  im- 
pels to  lofty  aspiration  and  noble  achievement  is  power- 
less in  itself,  unless  the  clear  light  of  expanded  intellect 
irradiates  the  soul  and  shines  full  along  your  path.  "The 
intellect,"  said  Sextus  the  Pythagorean,  "is  a  chorus  of 
Divinities.  From  the  plane  of  pure  intellection  all  life, 
both  subjective  and  objective,  both  inner  and  outer,  ap- 
pears embosomed  in  beauty,  but,  viewed  from  the  plat- 
form of  action,  life  is  a  struggle,  where  the  stakes  are 
life  and  death,  and  in  which  "The  joys  of  conquest  are 
the  joys  of  man."  In  the  supreme  struggle  for  Self 
Perfection, — for  you  must  aim  at  nothing  short  of  that, 
— the  joys  of  the  final  triumph  constitute  the  greatest 
joy  of  man. 

Nowadays  it  is  the  way  with  some  to  run  down  the 
intellect  and  to  give  emotions  the  first  place.  Again, 
there  are  others  who  ask  you  to  kill  out  the  heart — the 
seat  of  emotion — and  to  give  the  head — the  seat  of  rea- 
son— the  first  place.  Both  schools  are  dogmatic  and 
their  reasoning  is  shallow,  very  shallow.  The  fact  is; — 
neither  can  be  suppressed  and  crushed  out.  Steady  re- 
flection will  prove  that  each  is  great  in  its  own  place, 
that  the  heart  and  the  head,  the  feelings  and  the  intelli- 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  121 

gence,  complement  themselves,  and  both  are  ultimately 
resolvable  into  Infinity — which  is  Unity,  pure  and 
simple.  Nature  aims  at  human  development  on  all 
planes  and  you  must  unfold  on  all  sides;  otherwise  you 
run  the  great  risk  of  being  top-heavy,  onesided,  fanat- 
ical, narrow  and  short-sighted.  Indeed,  you  cannot  in- 
fringe upon  the  Eternal  Law  of  all-round  development 
without  bringing  pain  upon  yourself.  Try  to  realize 
this  supreme  truth !  Nature  is  conquered  by  Obedi- 
ence. Nature's  laws  are  invariable  and  their  very  uni- 
formity is  your  safeguard.  Knowledge  invests  you  with 
the  power  to  control.  Nature's  forces  are  at  your  dis- 
posal and  you  must  learn  how  to  manipulate  them.  If 
you  put  the  same  question  to  Nature  rightly,  the  same 
answers  shall  be  invariably  returned.  When  the  scien- 
tist in  the  laboratory  fails  to  perfect  an  experiment,  he 
examines  his  methods  and  always  finds  somewhere  some- 
thing wrong  in  his  own  processes. 

Hence,  if  you  plead  ignorance  as  the  cause  of  your 
blunders  all  blame  to  you  and  do  not  be  surprised  if  rlire 
punishment  overtakes  you  for  pulling  the  strings  of 
fate  the  wrong  way.  This  is  at  the  root  of  all  human 
miseries.  Now,  there  are  those  who  pretend  to  laugh 
at  tlie  efficacy  of  the  intellect  to  promote  spiritual  de- 
velopment. They  laugh  at  Yoga  and  austere  living  and 
say,  "0,  everything  comes  from  devotion  and  worship. 
God  will  give  me  everything."  Quite  so.  Perfectly  so. 
But  friend,  how  is  it  that  after  you  have  had  your  tear — ■ 
relief  from  your  little,  emotionally-AVorded  prayer,  you 


122      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

seem  to  forget  everything  but  your  personal  concerns ; 
you  seem  thoroughly  steeped  in  animalism,  selflove  and 
hatred ;  you  seem  quite  upset  at  the  loss  of  your  trifling 
worldly  things;  you  seem  swayed  to  and  fro  by  other's 
opinions;  by  your  own  passions.  Come,  are  you  not  a 
slave?  Would  you  dare  to  part  with  your  fleshy  tene- 
ment at  a  moment's  notice?  Are  you  not  far  removed 
from  God? 

Then,  how  dare  you  cry  down  the  Yogi  and  his  ef- 
forts to  master  himself?  I  say,  how  dare  you?  You 
profess  to  follow  the  dictates  of  the  heart  and  yet  your 
egg-shell  existence  of  narrow  selfism  has  quite  dried  up 
the  fountain  of  love  within  you.  No;  so  long  as  you 
are  a  slave,  you  cannot  love  and  worship  the  Infinite. 
The  intellect  must  be  developed  along  spiritual  lines; 
the  will-force  must  have  vanquished  the  animal  cravings 
which  are  ever  exerting  a  pull  downwards.  "The  torch 
of  wisdom  must  be  lighted  in  the  secret  chamber  of 
your  heart."  The  soul  must  contemplate  the  glories  of 
the  Infinite  Intelligence.  Then,  the  love-force, — "the 
all-consuming  fire? — shall  inundate  your  heart.  It 
will  make  your  whole  being  vibrate  in  tune  with  the 
Infinite. 

The  student  of  Yoga  is  taught  to  meditate  upon  the 
Supreme  Euler  of  the  Universe :  Omkara !  Wliy  ?  Be- 
cause to  meditate  thus  is  the  highest  worship.  But 
that  I  have  no  power  to  teach.  Wliat  is  worship?  There 
is  the  worship  of  Ignorance — Avidya;  again  there  is  a 
worship    of    the    intelligence    and    illumined    soul — the 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  128 

true  Philosopher — the  Gnani — the  worshipper  of  the 
Om! 

The  worship  of  the  worldly  man  has  back  of  it  the 
all-consuming  forces  PECUXIOMAXIA. 

Is  then  worldly  happiness  the  proper  standard  to 
judge  religion  by?  You  may  roll  in  riches.  You  may 
dine  off  the  most  succulent  viands  and  the  most  richly 
prepared  dishes.  You  may  wear  the  costliest  raiments. 
You  may  drive  in  the  smartest  equipages.  You  may 
live  in  palatial  buildings  adorned  with  the  most  beauti- 
ful appointments.  You  may  have  all  the  physical  com- 
forts such  as  the  rich  mines  of  Golconda  or  the  artifices 
of  modern  civilization  could  procure  you.  Tlie  world 
may  call  you  blessed  by  the  Lord  and  you  may  lose  your 
mental  poise  under  the  subtle  influence  of  their  fulsome 
flattery  and  indulge  in  heroics,  may  even  consider  your- 
self God's  beloved.  But  stop.  You  are  a  pleasure- 
seeker;  and  the  pleasure-seeker  is  an  ass  and  so  are  they 
that  pander  to  his  vanity.  If  you  think  sense-gratifica- 
tion the  summum  bonum  of  existence,  please  stop  read- 
ing this — it  is  not  meant  for  you. 

I  just  now  mentioned  a  peculiar  word — Pecunioma- 
nia.  Xow  what  is  the  significance  of  this  word?  Why, 
my  friend,  it  is  a  disease.  It  is  very  infectious.  It  is 
a  force  that  plays  off  man  against  man.  Why  does  one 
fly  at  the  throat  of  another?  T\niy  should  be  this  blind- 
ing clash  of  human  wills?  Why  should  one  man  be  so 
phlegmatic,  so  indifferent  to  the  actual  needs  of  an- 
other?   Why  should  there  be  a  constant  feeling  of  hun- 


124       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONaCIOUSIfESS 

gry  stomach,  a  parched  throat  and  a  feverish  brain? 
Why  should  you  so  persistently  talk  evil  behind  the 
scenes  of  the  very  man  whom  you  just  now  flattered  face 
to  face  ?  Why  should  you  consider  the  whole  world  sel- 
fish and  feel  yourself  bound  to  blacken  your  soul 
through  selfishness  and  deception  ?  Take  your  mirror 
in  hand  and  now  just  study  your  face.  You  are  already 
on  the  hunt  for  that  which  will  help  you  to  gratify 
these  cravings  that  the  face  portrays  and  that  something 
is  money.  You  are  already  a  worshipper  of  the  Golden 
Calf.  You  are  praying  to  Plutus — the  god  of  gold. 
This  is  pecuniomania.  This  thirst  for  gold  to  gratify 
tlie  demands  of  your  animal  soul  is  a  madness  that  dulls 
the  eyes,  stupifies  the  senses,  coarsens  the  features  and 
dwarfs  the  intellects  of  the  young  and  the  middle-aged 
as  well  as  the  old;  women  as  well  as  men.  Well  may 
such  as  these  feel  utterly  taken  aback  when  there  comes 
among  them  a  man  who,  although  young,  opens  his  lips 
only  to  utter  words  of  wisdom;  opens  his  eyes  only  to 
look  the  living  embodiment  of  perfect  chastity  and 
good  will;  seems  utterly  innocent  of  self-seeldng,  self- 
glorification,  self-righteousness  and  self-importance. 
Did  you  ever  see  a  man  whose  earnest  enthusiasm  and 
noble  aims,  shine  in  his  eyes,  dwell  in  the  ring  of  his 
voice,  seem  to  have  entered  his  hands  and  feet  and  com- 
pel his  entire  being?  These  are  true  devotees  of  the 
Supreme  Intelligence. 

Sneh  alone  can  pray.    Prayer  is  the  sincere  lifting  of 
the  soul  to  the  source  of  All-power.    Prayer  is  the  burn- 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  126 

ing  desire  of  the  soul  to  achieve  inner  wisdom.  Prayer 
is  the  earnest  strain  upwards  of  the  intelligence  to 
pierce  the  dark  penetralia  of  Ignorance.  Praj-er  is  the 
ceaseless  pressure  upon  the  Superconscious  mind — the 
Divine  part  of  ourselves — to  expand  our  sphere  of  in- 
sight. Prayer  is  the  deepening  of  the  intellect  and  the 
expansion  of  the  Heart.  Prayer  is  the  triumphant  con- 
junction of  Eeason  with  Intuition.  Prayer  is  the  cry 
of  the  purified  and  expanded  soul  for  power  and  Wis- 
dom to  help  and  uplift,  to  purify  and  ennoble,  to  exalt 
and  strengthen  those  towards  whom  it  may  feel  itself 
drawn  by  the  bond  of  spiritual  affinity.  Prayer  is  the 
longing  of  the  son  to  co-operate  with  his  father;  to  lift 
on  his  own  shoulders  a  little  of  the  heavy  Karma  of 
this  world.  Prayer  is  the  struggle  of  the  soul  to  free  its 
wings ;  the  flutter  of  the  heart  through  the  awe  of  lofty 
Idealism;  the  instinctive  leaning  on  our  secret  selves; 
the  drawing  inwards  for  more  light  and  life.  Prayer  is 
the  concentration  of  the  spirit  on  the  Problems  of  the 
Divine  life;  the  turning  of  the  search-light  of  the  Su- 
per-conscious-self upon  the  riddles  of  existence.  Prayer 
is  the  filling  of  inner  vision  with  positive  light — light 
that  rends  asunder  the  veils  of  Darkness  and  Maya. 
Prayer  is  the  souler-ascent  up  the  magnetic  chain  of 
Evolution.  Prayer  is  the  meditation  on  the  Infinite  in 
the  silence.  Prayer  is  the  faith  of  the  seer  in  his  vis- 
ions ;  in  his  contemplation  of  the  facts  of  life,  inner  and 
outer,  subjective  and  objective,  from  the  highest  stand- 
point, in  the  utmost  trust  that  he  reposes  in  tlie  Infinite ; 


126      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COXSCIOrsyESS 

law  that  sweetly  and  steadfastl}'  seeks  to  ever  provide 
our  feet  with  iron  shoes  for  rougli  roads.  "Pra3'er  that 
craves  a  particular  commodity — anything  less  than  all 
good — is  vicious.  Prayer  is  the  contemplation  of  the 
facts  of  life  from  the  highest  point  of  view.  It  is  a 
soliloquy  of  a  heholding  and  ju])ilant  soul.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  God  pronouncing  His  works  good.  But  prayer 
as  a  means  to  effect  a  private  end  is  meanness  and  theft. 
It  supposes  dualism  and  not  unity  in  Xature  and  in 
consciousness.  As  soon  as  the  man  is  at  one  with  the 
God  he  will  not  beg.  He  will  then  see  prayer  in  all 
action.  The  thoughts  of  the  purified  soul  are  all  prayer. 
Perhaps  you  will  ask:  "What  are  the  effects  of  prayer? 
The  attitude  of  the  praying  mind  is  one  of  intense 
concentration.  The  feelings  which  are  the  motive  power 
of  all  men,  have  been  wrought  up  to  a  state  of  tension. 
The  nerve-currents  are  all  being  carried  up  to  the  brain 
and  there  converted  into  tliought-power.  With  each 
exertion,  whether  mental  or  emotional,  there  is  an  out- 
going current  of  magnetism.  There  sets  up  a  stress  in 
the  ether.  The  entire  organism  is  subject  to  Self-Mag- 
netization. The  psychic  atmosphere  around  the  pray- 
ing soul  is  throbbing  with  his  thought-forces.  The 
aura — the  photosphere  round  each  form — ^is  bathed  in 
living  light,  sending  forth  waves  of  golden  yellow  color 
and  scintillating  with  unimaginable  splendor.  The 
finer  forces  of  the  super-physical  planes  have  been  at- 
tracted to  you.  Your  mind  is  opened  to  the  influx  of 
Divine  Help.     Receive  it.     It  is  yours  for  the  asking. 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  127 

The  question  of  how  to  pray  need  not  trouble  us  much. 
Prof.  James,  in  his  ^vell-kno^^'n  work  on  Psychology," 
makes  the  following  most  truthful  remarks :  "We  hear 
in  these  days  of  scientific  enlightenment,  about  the  ef- 
ficacy of  prayer  and  many  reasons  are  given  us  why  we 
Fhould  not  pray,  while  others  are  given  us  why  we 
should.  But  in  all  this  very  little  is  said  of  the  reason 
why  we  do  pray,  which  is  simply  that  we  cannot  help 
praying.  It  seems  probable  that  in  spite  of  all  that 
science  may  do  to  the  contrary,  men  will  continue  to 
pray  to  the  end  of  time,  imless  their  mental  nature 
.-lianges  in  a  manner  which  nothing  we  know  should 
lead  us  to  expect." 

Quite  so.  It  is  your  nature  to  pray.  You  eat  twice 
and  there  are  some  who  eat  every  three  hours  in  the 
day,  lest  your  body  should  starve.  But  in  the  meantime 
you  are  starving  your  soul.  The  moment  you  feel  the 
need  for  a  higher  plane  of  Development,  you  will  pray. 
Plato  advised  those  who  prayed  to  remain  silent  in  the 
presence  of  the  divine  ones,  till  they  remove  the  cloud 
from  the  eyes  and  enabled  them  to  see  by  the  light  which 
issued  from  themselves."  Applonius  always  isolated 
himself  from  men  during  the  "conversation"  he  held 
with  God  and  whenever  he  felt  the  necessity  for  divine 
contemplation  and  prayer,  he  wrapped  himself  head 
and  all  in  the  drapers^  of  his  white  woolen  mantle.  (Isis 
Unveiled  P.  I.)  "When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy 
closet  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father   in   secret,"   says   the    Nazarene.      Prof.    Hiram 


128      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COySCIOUSNESS 

Erastus  Butler — one  of  the  noblest  amongst  the  modern 
American  Christian  thinkers — says  in  his  beautiful 
book,  "The  Seven  Creative  Principles:"  "When  heav- 
enl}'  desire  is  active,  then  man  prays,  but  not  without 
it  can  he  pray  effectually.  Then  the  prayer  of  that  soul 
which  looks  out  upon  the  human  family  and  the  world 
and  sees  the  fallen  condition  we  are  in  today  reaches 
out  with  that  pure  thought  which  they  should  have.  0, 
for  Wisdom  and  Power,  that  I  might  work  under  thy 
guidance  for  the  elevation  of  my  brethren;  of  those 
under  my  care !  0,  that  I  might  become  an  instrument 
in  tlie  hands  of  that  Infinite  Power  to  work  that  I  may 
alleviate,  elevate  and  strengthen;  that  I  may  bring  my 
fellows  into  the  consciousness  of  that  glorified  life." 

Xow,  reader,  understand,  once  for  ever,  prayer  is 
willing.  It  leads  to  the  accomplishment  of  your  aims 
on  the  spot.  The  righteous  and  pure  soul  expresses  its 
will  force  in  prayer.  Thereby  it  is  exalted  into  the  spir- 
itual realm.  In  this  sphere  Will  is  the  basal  power  of 
influence.  It  draws  all  your  finer  forces  into  a  focus 
towards  the  thing  willed  for.  The  result  is  that  the 
thing  is  done.  The  astonished  and  grateful  recipient 
attributes  his  success  to  a  Special  Providence  and  he  is 
justified  in  doing  so.  The  Great  Law  operates  always 
and  everpvhere.  The  prayer  simply  attunes  himself 
thereto  by  taking  intelligent  advantage  of  nature's 
forces.  By  prayer  you  come  into  rapport  with  the  spir- 
itually conscious  side  of  yourself.  You  are  as  a  needle 
pointing    to    th.e   magnet — the    more    faith — and    faith 


THE  ROLE  OF  PRAYER  129 

comes  from  Knowledge  and  Chastity — you  put  into  the 
task,  the  sooner  will  you  adjust  your  forces ;  the  quicker 
shall  be  the  response;  the  more  lasting  and  powerful 
the  reaction.  Here,  then,  you  have  all  the  switches  and 
levers  of  energy  and  inspiration. 

Therefore  pray  ever  and  believe  that  your  prayer  shall 
ripen  to  fruition.  Build  up  faith  in  the  unseen  and 
the  invisible.  The  self  in  you  is  your  guide,  philoso- 
pher and  friend.  It  is  the  Eock  of  the  Ages — the  Eter- 
nal among  the  Transient — the  Source  of  All-Power, 
Wisdom  and  Activity.  Lean  on  it  for  it  is  Strength — 
Invincible  Strength. 


CHAPTER  XVL 

THOUGHT  :  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE. 

The  right  exercise  of  thought-power  is  an  act  of  crea- 
tion. "Each  thought  is  a  soul/'  says  Lytton.  "What 
yoii  think  that  you  are,  what  you  shall  think  that  you 
shall  be/'  are  the  words  of  Budha.  "We  live  in  that 
state  of  development  our  thoughts  create  for  us."  "A 
drop  of  ink  makes  millions  think" — and  one  might  pile 
one  saying  above  another  to  the  same  effect. 

The  action  of  thought  manifests  itself  continually. 
The  power  of  suggestion  and  auto-suggestion,  reigns 
supreme  here,  there  and  ever}'where.  Nations  are  caught 
up  by  an  idea  and  their  destiny  is  shaped  thereby.  A 
thought  becomes  the  ruling  passion  of  a  man's  life,  and 
monomania  or  perfection  in  a  certain  direction  is  the 
natural  sequence.  One  man  meets  another,  and  the 
latter's  inner  consciousness  rises  in  response  to  the  idea 
held  in  the  former's  mind  and  vice  versa.  No  words 
have  yet  passed  between  them  and  yet  the  thought  of 
each  is  known  to  the  other.  "Hide  your  thoughts?" 
says  Emerson,  "you  may  as  well  try  to  hide  the  suns 
and  the  stars." 

Every  one,  who  watches  his  thoughts,  realizes  that 
ideas  as  they  enter  our  minds  are  accompanied  by  cor- 

130 


THOUGHT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        131 

responding  forces  in  their  train.  As  soon  as  a  thought 
comes  in,  there  is  an  inrush  of  force  in  correspondence 
with  it.  This  may  be  due  to  the  calling  up  of  other 
mental  images  lying  dormant  within  the  deeps  of  our 
mind,  but  which  wake  up  as  soon  as  they  recognize  an 
associate  and  hasten  to  combine  with  it.  Different 
waves  are  thus  stirred  up  in  the  mind.  A  peaceful 
thought  is  akin  to  the  fragrant  breeze  of  fresh  air;  a 
hateful  thought  is  loaded  with  corroding  influences. 
Let  us  illustrate  the  point: 

My  soul  is  filled  with  love  or  compassion  for  some 
one,  man  or  beast,  and  my  whole  heart  goes  out  thereto. 
1  quite  forget  myself.  A  poor,  stricken  beggar,  with 
tottering  limbs  and  feeble  form,  catehes  my  eye.  In- 
stantly a  train  of  thought  is  started.  I  feel  for  him 
and  with  him.  Pity  and  sj^mpathy  make  me  feel  for 
him.  Introspection  malces  me  feel  with  him.  I  trans- 
fer my  soul  into  his  and  feel  the  acuteness  of  his  feel- 
ings. 1  live  his  life  for  the  moment.  And  what  is  the 
good  of  having  so  lived  his  life?  This — I  have  ex- 
panded. Something  of  the  grosser  side  of  my  nature 
has  been  shaken  out  of  me.  Again  some  one  has  per- 
haps outstripped  nse  in  my  mad  hunt  after  money,  or 
crossed  me  in  a  love  affair.  My  whole  being  is  a-quiver 
with  rage  and  mortification.  There  is  fire  in  my  veins. 
"0,  if  I  could  catch  the  rascal  on  the  hip !  Ye  gods, 
how  I  hate  the  fellow."  I  stamp  my  feet,  gnash  my 
teeth,  and  clench  my  fists.  I  am  angry.  I  hate.  Oh — 
Yes,  decidedly.     I  know  it.    I  have  lived.    But  to  what 


182      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

end?  This — I  have  contracted,  I  have  passed  through 
two  distinct  moods,  the  one  was  creative,  the  other  ex- 
haustive.    Which  shall  I  choose? 

x\.ll  life  is  a  flux  of  moods.  The  mind  of  man  is  con- 
tinually vibrating.  External  impacts  impinge  upon  it 
iind  galvanize  it  into  activity.  Impulses  initiated  from 
within  act  upon  it.  This  ceaseless  activity  of  the  mind, 
if  controlled  and  toned  up  to  an  exalted  level,  will  at 
hist  lead  us  to  that  by  knowing  which  man  knows 
everything;  if  left  alone,  will  knock  us  about  here  and 
tliere,  from  pillar  to  post,  till,  weakened  and  exhausted, 
we  fall  witliin  the  iron  grips  of  King  Death  to  be 
(aught  perhaps  harder  lessons  hereafter. 

The  mind  is  like  a  wild,  unbroken  colt  and  requires 
to  be  broken  in.  So  long  as  the  waves  of  this  mind  are 
not  stilled,  the  path  to  peace  may  not  be  trodden. 

The  law  of  action  and  reaction  holds  good  every- 
where. Between  man  and  man,  between  brain  and 
body,  between  the  physical  and  supro-physical,  between 
atom  and  atom,  a  constant  interaction  of  energies  is  in 
full  swing.  Nothing  goes  out  from  us  but  must  com- 
plete the  circuit  of  its  influence  and  come  back  to  us. 
From  within,  outwards  and  then  back  again — that  is 
the  law  of  "Shristi :"  projection. 

We  cannot  stir  up  different  conditions  in  the  world 
of  thought  or  of  action,  and  yet  escape  free  from  the 
influences  thereof.  We  cannot  commit  violence  with- 
out having  the  causes  which  motived  the  act  react  upon 
us.    Take  an  India  rubber  ball  and  throw  it  with  force 


THOUGHT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        138 

against  a  wall.  The  ball  returns  to  your  hand  with  ex- 
actly the  same  force  which  drove  it  through  space  to 
the  wall.    This  is  very  simple. 

The  human  brain  may  fitly  be  compared  to  a  galvanic 
battery,  generating  currents  of  electric  force,  weak  or 
strong,  according  to  the  nature  of  its  structure  and 
power.  We  generate  a  thought-current,  bring  it  up  to 
a  high  pitch  of  vibration,  project  it  over  our  nerves  and 
then  off  at  the  extremities, — into  physical  manifesta- 
tion; an  act,  a  word,  or  something  else.  That  is  how  I 
understand  it. 

The  brain,  which  is  a  concentration  of  fine  nerve  mat- 
ter, commanding  an  area  of  upwards  of  300  square 
inches,  when  stimulated  by  a  thought,  generates  force 
in  the  brain-cells,  which  number  about  "3 50,000  to  the 
square  inch ;  and  currents  of  this  force  run  down  the 
nerves,  which  in  turn  are  attached  to  these  cells — the 
"brain"  battery  cells,  we  may  well  call  them.  Indeed 
physiology  teaches  us  that  attached  to  each  cell  are 
nerves,  never  less  than  two  in  number  and  sometimes  as 
many  as  four.  Minute  nerve  fibres  proceed  in  bundles 
and  cords  from  the  microscopical  centres,  the  cells — I 
mean, — all  over  the  physique.  These  fibres  are  very 
jne,  I  may  say,  superfine,  in  structure,  since  their  ulti- 
mate ends  are  not  perceptible  even  under  the  lenses  of 
a  microscope.  You  may  imagine  how  fine  they  are  when 
I  tell  you  that  the  smallest  part  of  them,  the  microscop- 
ically visible  part,  "i«  calculated  to  measure  in  size  not 
more  than  1-15,000  part  of  an  inch,"  and  it  is  consid- 


184       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

ered  by  advanced  ph5'siologists  that  even  these  minute 
nerves  may  after  all  be  bundles  of  fine  nerves.  Now  you 
may  well  conceive  of  the  effects  produced  by  an  intense 
emotion,  a  powerful  suggestion  from  oul^side,  or  a 
strong  thought  vibrated  upon  from  within,  upon  the 
nervas  which  concentrate  themselves  mostly  in  the  in- 
tricacies of  the  nen'ous  system  and  generally  all  over 
the  system. 

The  nervo-vital  force,  the  ps3Thoplasm,  as  some  have 
wisely  termed  it,  is  in  a  state  of  exchange  between  the 
brain  and  the  body.  Each  thought  is  of  atomatic  ori- 
gin, otherwise  its  transmission  through  the  ether  would 
be  quite  impossible.  Each  atom  draws  upon  another 
atom  for  momentum,  and  therefore  the  energy  of 
thought-atoms  is  vibrant  in  its  nature.  The  finer  the 
atoms  which  go  to  compose  a  thought,  the  more  tre- 
mendous the  rapidity  with  which  they  are  whirled  into 
action  from  within  outside,  and  reaction  from  outside 
within.  The  nobler  and  more  intense  the  thought,  the 
greater  its  vibrant  fineness  and  the  wider  its  field  of 
activity. 

A  calm  ascension  of  the  mind  is  perfectly  compatible 
with  a  strong,  sensitive,  and  glandular  organization  ca- 
pable of  standing  immense  strain,  and  registering  on  its 
sensitive  nerve-wires  the  feelings  and  thoughts  of  those 
who  come  into  contact  with  it.  It  can  exercise  th&  pro- 
jective functions  of  the  mind  with  a  serene  power.  It 
can  re-polarize  the  minds  of  weak,  worried,  suffering 
mortals  by  its  mere  presence.     It  can  receive  beams  of 


THOUGHT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        135 

spiritual  liglit  that  flash  downwards  into  it  in  the  form 
of  intuition,  genius,  and  inspirational  messages  from 
tlie  unseen.  Eemember,  please,  all  this  means  every- 
thing and  nothing  for  us  just  as  we  watch  and  control 
each  mental  tremor  and  quiver  caused  within  us  by  our 
thoughts  or  drift  along  aimlessly  cycle  after  cycle  of 
our  existence. 

The  human  body  is  a  channel  for  the  influx  and  ef- 
flux of  various  forces  and  the  degree  of  its  purification 
shall  detennine  whether  much  shall  manifest  in  it  or 
little.  We  live  in  the  state  of  development  achieved  by 
the  mind  and  the  body — not  muscular  development 
necessarily.  The  body  which  is  built  up  of  the  gross 
constituents  of  animal  flesh  and  alcohol  is  liardly  fit  for 
employment  in  lofty  thought  and  the  spiritual  evocator 
— he  who  calls  the  sacred  spirits  of  the  finer  planes — 
sits  stark  naked  and  specially  purifies  his  body  that 
nothing  impure  should  cling  to  him  within  or  outside, 
lest  he  should,  by  the  coarsened  nature  of  his  body  or 
garment  attract  malificient  beings  to  himself.  The 
mind  cannot  be  tampered  with  without  injury  to  the 
bodv  and  vice  versa.  Eemember  your  entire  physical 
organ  is  a  thought-form,  coarse  or  fine  according  to  the 
quality  of  your  thoughts. 

Certain  thoughts  exhaust  the  life-force,  others  create 
it.  Injurious  thought-currents  can  be  suppressed  by 
raising  an  opposition  wave.  Hatred  should  be  replaced 
by  love,  worry  by  hopefulness,  hesitation  by  decision. 


136      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

anger  by  calmness  and  so  forth:  the  finer  always  sup- 
presses the  grosser,  mark  you. 

Training  is  necessary.  Knowledge  must  be  gained. 
Strength  of  the  will-power  must  be  developed.  Now  for 
a  glance  at  the  practical  side  of  the  question.  For  we 
have  to  acquire  knowledge  and  then  patiently  see  to  the 
practical  application  of  it  in  life.  Mere  intellectual 
contemplation  of  an  idea  is  not  the  proper  way  to  suc- 
cess in  Occultism. 

The  mind  is  capable  of  existing  in  two  states — Posi- 
tive and  Negative.  Both  are  necessary  for  the  up-keep 
of  mental  and  physical  equipoise.  We  must  be  able  to 
call  up  either  state  at  Avill  and  without  the  least  of  fric- 
tion and  strenuous  effort.  The  positive  state  is  a  state 
of  tension,  alertness,  centrality.  The  negative  state  is 
an  attitude  of  receptivity,  relaxation  and  non-resistance. 
The  fomier  if  sustained  all  through  the  day  would 
mean  exhaustion  and  nervous  brealcdown.  The  latter, 
unless  self-induced,  would  render  us  a  victim  to  the 
^'world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil."  The  former  calls  for 
an  increase  of  nerve-force.  The  latter  conserves  this 
force  and  replenishes  the  store  house. 

We  must  attune  ourselves  to  both  these  states. 
Thought  is  the  fine  cause  of  action ;  control  the  one  and 
you  have  controlled  the  other.  Evil,  health-destroying 
and  will-wealcening  thoughts  must  be  faced  by  a  calm 
and  positive  attitude.  A  position  of  strength  should 
be  taken  up.  "I  am  strong.  I  am  pure.  I  have  nought 
to  do  with  evil  thoughts  and  practices.    I  command  my 


THOUGHT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        137 

brain.  My  body  is  my  slave.  I  am  master  within  my 
own  house.  No  thought  here  remains  without  my  per- 
mission. Xo  thought  grips  me  and  holds  me  its  slave. 
I  am  master."  By  a  calm  positive  attitude  I  mean  that 
you  should  not  allow  yourself  to  be  flurried  and  dis- 
turbed when  faced  by  an  Evil  thought,  but  should  face 
it  as  if  already  sure  of  conquest. 

Simultaneously  with  these  auto-suggestions,  the  at- 
tention should  be  turned  to  something  lofty  and  noble. 
We  must  go  on  encouraging  the  inflow  of  noble  ideas, 
till,  at  last,  the  evil  thought  is  cut  off  from  our  mental 
vision  and  drops  off'  altogether.  The  mind  can  think  of 
one  thing  at  a  time.  Think  nobly  and  loftily  and  the 
evil  thoughts  will  soon  "take  the  hint"  and  cease  to 
disturb  you. 

Whilst  we  repeat  mental  suggestions,  we  must  feel 
their  action.  We  must  take  long,  caressing  breaths  and 
breathe  life  upon  them.  Thus  they  will  become  permar 
nent  in  our  constitution.  With  each  successful  effort, 
automatism  will  be  hastened,  till  at  last  in  a  very  short 
time  we  shall  become  so  strongly  grounded  in  our  prin- 
ciples that  bad  thoughts  will  be  thrown  off  automatic- 
ally and  nothing  evil  shall  touch  us.  Express  the  Good 
the  Pure,  the  Powerful  in  yourself  and  you  can  easily 
repress  the  Evil,  the  Impure  and  the  Weak. 

How  easy  to  be  good  and  pure,  after  all.  Yet  we 
spend  years  in  fighting  an  evil  and  exhausting  thought, 
when  healthy  mental  occupation  would  throw  its  own 
blissful  mantle  of  peace  upon  us.     It  is  the  only  lesson 


138      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

I  have  learnt: — ""Would  you  have  peace?  Then  spirit- 
ualise yourself/'  and  I  give  it  to  you  with  all  the  love 
in  my  heart.  The  more  spiritually  developed  we  are, 
the  stronger  and  hence  calmer  we  shall  be.  There  is 
no  doubt  of  this. 

The  Negative  mental  attitude  is  absorbent  of  energy 
only  when  it  is  given  free  play  deliberately. 

When  seated  at  the  feet  of  one,  pure-hearted  and 
loving;  when  studying  the  inspiring  words  of  some 
great  teacher;  when  under  the  influence  of  calm 
thought;  after  a  strong  and  continued  exercise  of  will- 
power, we  ought  to  "relax,"  and  receive  the  transmis- 
sions of  energy  from  such  sources,  and  breathe  them  in 
with  a  prayerful  heart. 

When  praying  to  the  Supreme  Creator,  let  us  be  re- 
ceptive of  the  currents  of  spiritual  force  that  follow  in 
the  wake  of  devout  prayer.  The  sun  shines  upon  the 
dung-hill  as  well  as  the  beautiful  rose.  The  saint  as 
well  as  the  sinner  can  open  themselves  out  for  an  inflow 
of  divine  energy  by  simple,  earnest  prayer.  He  who 
says  otherwise  is  born  blind.  Science  must  repair  the 
evil  science  has  done  by  recognizing  the  efficacy  of 
prayer.  The  negative  state  must  be  accompanied  by  an 
interior  balance  of  mind. 

The  most  important  factor  in  the  training  and  de- 
velopment of  mind,  in  the  expansion  or  rather  the  un- 
foldment  of  the  soul,  is  Concentration. 

Now  concentration  means  the  power  of  holding  the 
mind  to  centre ; — to  a  focal  point,  without  allowing  any 


THOUailT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        139 

other  thoughts  to  touch  you.  Concentration  is  perfect 
attention.  All,  Yes !  all  possess  this  power  of  atten- 
tion, "We  all  pay  attention  to  what  we  like.  But  the 
secret  of  strength  lies  in  concentrating  our  minds  upon 
what  we  do  not  care  for.  Mr.  Eaghavachary  says  in  his 
beautiful  little  book,  ''The  Magnetic  Aura"— "Mental 
energ}'  when  forced  into  difficult  and  lofty  channels 
develops  Power,  when  allowed  to  run  along  lines  of  least 
resistance  breeds  weakness."  I  am  quoting  from  mem- 
ory, but  that  is  the  idea — the  will  must  learn  to  con- 
centrate upon  what  Mr.  Eaghavachary  says  if  followed, 
would  develop  your  mental  muscles  and  will-power, 
wonderfully.  All  my  readers  should  study  this  little 
book. 

The  element  of  "attraction"  predominates.  Let  us 
utilize  it.  Suppose  there  is  a  hard  bit  of  work  a  man 
does  not  like  but  which  would  be  of  gi'eat  use  to  him  if 
properly  accomplished.  What  ought  he  to  do?  He 
ought  to  dwell  on  the  advantages  that  would  accrue  to 
him  if  he  did  it.  Thus  at  last  what  was  dry  work 
would  become  interesting,  because  he  now  knows  it  will 
make  him  happy.  He  should  at  first  lead  on  the.  mind 
by  gentle  suggestions,  then  transmute  the  mood  to  a 
Direct  Action  of  the  will,  remaining  immovable  and 
resolute. 

Control  of  speech,  control  of  action,  control  of 
thoughts — that  is  Self-Control  par  excellence.  Eesolve 
to  succeed  in  this  and  every  morning  renew  your  re- 
solve and  act  up  to  it.    At  first  you  will  have  some  fail- 


AO      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CON8CIOUSXE88 

ures;  but  never  mind;  go  on  and  you  will  succeed  ac- 
cording to  the  strength  of  your  Resolve. 

We  ought  to  decide  upon  the  particular  t}'pe  of 
thoughts  that  should  find  an  open  door  in  the  precincts 
of  our  minds.  This  particular  set  of  thoughts  must  be 
encouraged,  must  be  assimilated  i.  e.,  made  part  and 
parcel  of  our  being,  must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  our 
action  and  speech.  "If  you  would  be  thoughtful  speak- 
thoughtfully ,"  says  an  esteemed  friend,  Prof.  H.  E. 
Butler. 

Each  act  must  have  a  well-defined  basis  and  should 
be  seen  complete  mentally  previous  to  being  external- 
ized. Forethought  must  precede  action.  Decision  and 
tenacity  of  purpose  should  accompany  its  performance. 
A  complete  decision  of  the  mind  clears  the  mental  field 
and  is  really  the  battle  half  won,  at  times,  wholly  won. 

Each  utterance  must  be  well-grounded  on  a  clear 
thought.  It  should  be  based  on  a  strong  conviction  if 
it  is  to  tell.  Calmness  and  not  muscular  exertion  of  the 
larynx  should  accompany  speech. 

Silver-tongued  men  are  always  sweet  tonguod.  Con- 
trol speech,  my  friend.  It  is  a  mighty  power.  Let  it 
not  wound. 

Each  evil  thought  once  entertained  with  delight  sets 
up  a  magnetic  centre  for  the  attraction  of  similar  oth- 
ers. It  must  be  excluded  promptly  and  a  good  thought 
substituted  in  its  place.  This  must  be  done  with  tire- 
less zeal  till  our  mind  will  automatically  repel  the  evil 
and   welcome  the   good.      For  the   law   of  aiatomatism 


THOUGHT:  CREATIVE  AND  EXHAUSTIVE        141 

reigns  supreme  in  entire  life.  Serions,  thought-com- 
pelling books  should  be  studied  and  their  teachings  ap- 
plied with  resolution  in  our  daily  lives,  if  we  are  to  be 
in  magnetic  trim  with  them.  We  should  keep  our- 
selves healthily  occupied  mentally  and  physically.  We 
should  keep  ourselves  well-in-hand  emotionally ;  for 
emotions  are  a  great  force,  but  must  be  controlled  before 
they  can  fee  utilized;  otherwise  they  will  lead  to  our 
destruction. 

Wliat,  0  Friend;  is  blind  passion  that  you  should  be 
in  its  thrall  ?  VThat  is  death  that  you  should  be  afraid 
of  it?  Xeither  body  nor  mind,  neither  wife  nor  chil- 
dren, neitlier  Avealth  nor  worldly  enjoyment; — nothing 
will  make  you  happy.  That  is  what  we  all  seek !  Hap- 
piness. And  that  is  rooted  deep  within  ourselves  minus 
world,  riches  and  all  such  otlier  toys. 

Escape  from  the  illusion  of  forms,  of  senses,  and  of 
selfishness.  Know  "Thou  are  God — ta  twam  asi,  0 
Swetaketu,"  and  be  free.  Know  that  you  are  for  per- 
fection. Eternal  Love  and  Service  Free.  Thus; — in- 
crease your  Spiritual  Stature  and  realize  God  who  alone 
exists.  All  is  His.  All  is  He.  He  is  Truth,  Existence 
and  Bliss.  Then  let  us  worship  Him  by  right  action, 
thought  and  speech.  The  path  is  open  to  all.  Every 
one  is  welcome  to  tread  it.  The  sooner  we  do  so  the 
better  for  us  as  well  as  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MEDITATION    EXERCISE. 

1.  I  will  be  what  I  a^II  to  be.  I  "can"  and  I  "will" 
be  Free. 

2.  Locked  up  in  my  soul  is  All-Power, — All- Wisdom, 
— All -Love.  My  first,  last  and  only  mission  in  life  is 
to  give  Explicit  Expression  to  the  Soul-Force — the  All- 
Go  (o)d — implicit  in  my  being.  I  live  for  Self-Perfec- 
tion. 

3.  I  yield  to  no  external  agencies  ...  be  they 
human  or  non-human.  He  that  fights  for  me  is  Within 
me  and  he  is  strength  itself.  My  inner  nature  is  a  bat- 
tery of  irresistible  force. 

4.  By  the  way  of  nothing  I  resolve  to  realize  the 
Parambramhan — the  Supreme  Self — the  Absolute,  who 
alone  exists  away  beyond  Time  and  Space ;  beyond  Cause 
and  Effect,  beyond  Light  and  Darkness;  beyond  all  rel- 
ative manifestation. 

5.  I  renounce  all  thirst  for  Life  on  Earth  or  in 
Heaven.  I  resolve  to  be  cold  to  Pleasure  and  to  be  calm 
to  Pain.    I  am  "Desire-Free." 

6.  Henceforth  I  obey  no  Law,  man-made  or  God- 
made,  but  what  is  sanctioned  by  my  own  highest  Intui- 
tion and  Inner  Judgment.     I  am  a  Disembodied  Spirit 

142 


MEDITATION  EXERCISE  143 

working,  living  and  breathing  for  all  that  is  related  to 
me  by  Spiritual  AflBnit}^  I  care  little  for  this  world 
with  ith  thousand-cloven  tongues  of  gratis  advice,  praise 
and  censure.  I  can  but  obey  my  polarity.  I  want  noth- 
ing. I  seek  Strength  in  Chastity.  I  seek  Wisdom  in 
the  Silence  of  my  own  heart,  which  is  assuredly  the 
Seat  of  Divinity  and  the  Fountain  of  all  Virtue  and 
Goodness. 

7.  I  dedicate  myself — body,  soul  and  spirit  to  the 
service  of  the  "Great  Orphan" — humanity.  I  worship 
God  by  serving  Man. 

8.  I  resolve  in  this  life,  so  to  train  myself,  that  I 
shall  be  a  tremendous  centre  of  Spiritual  Force.  My 
entire  personality  must  reflect  Divine  Splendour.  It 
must  be  a  living  and  powerful  lever  to  Uplift,  Ennoble 
and  Purify  all  such  as  come  into  contact  with  me.  I 
am  a  Spiritual  Exemplar  of  greatness. 

9.  I  strive  for  the  Christ-Life,  the  Buddha-Life, 
and  the  Great-Lives  whose  touch  has  brought  me  Light 
of  Knowledge. 

10.  I  resolve  to  be  serious,  devoted  and  constant  in 
my  principles  every  moment  of  my  life,  awake  or 
asleep ;  at  work  or  at  rest ;  in  society  or  in  soliiude ;  in 
joy  or  in  grief;  in  praise  or  in  blame;  in  earth-life  or 
hereafter.  I  am  determined  that  nought  shall  shake 
my  purpose,  which  is  unalterably  fixed.  By  the  sword 
of  Knowledge  I  will  cut  asunder  and  dispel  all  fear, 
within  and  without. 

11.  I  resolve  to  be  Fearless.     I  deny  the  Power  of 


144       DEVELOPIXG  SPIRITUAL  C0iT,SrC/0t7SxY£?SS 

anytliing,  within  or  outside  of  my  physical  form,  to 
weaken  me.  I  am  resolved  that  my  nerves  shall  be 
steady  and  obey  my  mandates. 

12.  I  resolve  to  be  Pure  and  perfectly  Chaste,  Clean, 
Contented,  and  studious.  I  shall  by  force  of  my  Will- 
Power  crush  and  starve  out  all  sensual  and  unclean 
thoughts :  and  conquer,  most  thoroughly,  "the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  the  pride  of  life."  I  am 
the  embodiment  of  Continence. 

13.  I  resolve  to  live  above  the  animal  stage,  above 
the  merely  liuman  stage,  above  all,  as  far  as  possible, 
that  pertains  to  either  or  both.  I  resolve  to  live  the 
Divine  Life — which  is  not  only  superhuman  but  is 
above  it. 

14.  I  resolve  to  master  my  mind  and  body.  The 
education  of  the  Will  and  the  Expansion  of  my  spiritual 
Stature  is  the  aim  of  my  existence,  since  what  appear 
to  be  trials  beyond  the  endurance  of  common  humanity 
can  have  no  terrors  for  the  Expanded  Intellect  of  the 
Yogi.  The  dawn  of  Spiritual  Greatness  heralds  the 
death  of  Pain.    Pain  fructifies  in  the  soil  of  Ignorance. 

15.  I  resolve  to  thoroughly  master  all  the  principles 
of  Spiritual  Unfoldment  and  to  spare  no  pains  for  the 
acquirement  of  right  Knowledge;  since  the  emotion 
that  is  a  constant  impulsion  to  noble  living  and  lofty 
aspirations  is  baffled  in  its  efforts  and  becomes  a  source 
of  Pain  unendurable,  when  the  Clear  Light  of  the  In- 
tellect does  not  shine  upon  the  Path. 

16.  I  resolve  to  mount  guard  over  Speech^  Thought 


MEDITATION  EXERCISE  145 

and  Action,  lest  by  recklessness  or  inadvcrtancy  I 
should,  in  any  way,  however  slightly,  sully  myself  Spir- 
itually and  thus  give  myself  cause  for  self-condemna- 
tion. I  resolve  to  put  Emotion  under  the  yoke  of 
Eeason. 

17.  I  resolve  to  be  Gentle,  Quiet  and  Loving  to  oth- 
ers. My  bearing  towards  others  shall  be  one  of  perfect 
sv/eetness.  I  radiate  the  Supreme  Power — the  Love- 
Force — the  Expansion  of  which  shall  be  my  constant 
endeavour  and  a  source  of  all-bliss  to  mankind. 

18.  I  resolve  to  be  a  staunch  upholder  of  the  Great 
Law  of  Compassion  and  Xon-injury.  From  me  there 
can  be  no  danger  to  anything  or  anybody.  I  wish 
everyone  perfect  Soul-Bliss. 

19.  I  resolve  to  hold  myself  ever  Calm  and  Serene. 
I  can  never  be  a  slave  to  worry,  anger  or  any  other  emo- 
tional disturbance,  I  am  Master  everj^where  and  always, 
over  everything  and  all  conditions. 

20.  I  am  independent  of  the  body  and  use  same  as 
an  instrument.  I  am  and  have  Eternal  Life.  I  am  a 
Soul  indestructible  and  have  a  body.  I  am  one  with 
All.     I  am  the  All. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  the  KalpaJca — pub- 
lished by  the  Latent  Light  Culture. 

SILENCE— What  is  Silence?  Silence  is  to  keep 
quiet.  It  is  a  gi-eat  thing  to  keep  silent.  It  can  be 
called  one  of  the  greatest  accomplishments  that  man 
can  attain.  It  is  not  only  for  the  development  of  the 
soul  or  any  unfoldment  of  the  self  that  it  is  useful,  but 


146      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COXii^CIOUSyESS 

it  is  also  beneficial  for  both  work  and  rest.  When  you 
keep  silent  the  brain  works  much  more  accurately  and 
the  action  of  the  heart  is  more  steady;  a  physical  rest 
ensues  as  all  the  members  of  the  body  are  quiet,  relaxed 
and  in  a  state  of  receptivity. 

A  man  who  can  relax  his  muscles  will  get  more  rest 
in  an  hour  than  one  who  cannot  relax  gets  in  one  full 
day. 

"\Ylien  one  is  silent,  a  beautiful  stillness  prevails,  and 
it  is  then  you  come  into  consciousness  more  entirely. 
What  is  it?  It  is  nothing  but  the  understanding  of 
your  relation  with  God.     How  to  make  this  practical  ? 

When  you  read  this  you  feel  an  upliftment;  you 
realize  yourself  to  a  greater  extent;  you  have  a  truer 
consciousness  of  infinite  things.  Every  step  of  this  ad- 
vancing realization  induces  stronger  consciousness  of 
Power.  Vihsit  more  practical  proof  than  this  do  you 
want? 

There  is  no  limit  to  Truth.  There  is  no  limit  to 
your  Power.  There  is  nothing  impossible  for  you  in  this 
universe.  You  must  first  realize  this  fact.  If  you  wish 
to  attain  Power,  you  must  be  full  of  desire  and  atten- 
tion. 

What  is  desire  and  attention  ?  It  is  nothing  but  con- 
centration, pure  and  simple.  It  is  only  when  you  open 
the  avenues  of  your  soul  to  the  influence  of  the  Spirit 
that  you  can  have  liberty — liberty  from  bondage.  la 
short,  know  yourself. 


MEDITATION  EXERCISE  147 

OBSTACLES — I  am  the  master  of  my  own  life.  I 
can  overcome  all  obstacles  and  gain  dominion  over  my- 
self and  my  surroundings. 

It  is  my  duty  to  count  my  blessings  and  brighten  the 
lives  of  others  around  me. 

I  shall  not  sadden  others  by  complaining  and  fault- 
finding. 

Do  you  realize  that  comfort  cannot  be  found  outside 
of  yourself?  You  do;  and  yet  the  whole  world  is  sin- 
ning, suffering  and  sighing  for  it.  Then  why  don't  you 
enjoy  it? 

You  wish  you  could,  but  you  find  you  have  so  many 
things  to  do,  and  you  barely  find  time  to  devote  to  your- 
self. You  must  understand  there  is  no  permanence 
except  in  Spirit.  You  must  utterly  abandon  your  old 
ways  of  thinking  and  of  doing.  You  must  set  aside  an 
hour  every  day  for  sitting  in  the  'Silence.'  The  intense 
forces  of  life  operate  in  perfect  silence.  You  must  take 
that  hour  by  force  until  it  becomes  a  habit  with  you. 
You  will  have  peace  and  control.  Life  will  be  worth 
living. 

You  are  but  a  part  of  the  whole.  The  whole  is 
Spirit.  There  is  only  one  Spirit,  and  God  is  Spirit. 
Therefore  you  are  spiritual. 

Xo  kind  of  material  trouble  can  affect  the  spiritual. 
Everything  is  spirit.  Lo !  you  are  a  being  having 
everything  in  you.  What  you  want  is  within  your 
grasp.  You  can  be  what  you  wish  to  be.  All  that  ap- 
pears to  be  obstacles  to  your  advancement  is  false,  and 


148       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

does  not  exist.  Assert  your  Self  and  become  the  master 
of  all. 

EEFLECTIOX— One  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments that  constitute  success  is  reflection.  It  is  more 
or  less  an  exercise — intellectual  exercise;  by  this  the 
mind  is  cleared  and  the  thought  receives  a  gi'eater  im- 
pulse. "Eead  and  reflect"  is  an  adage  worth  remem- 
bering. Just  take  a  piece  of  poetry;  read  it  slowly; 
think  of  its  various  meanings;  value  the  thought  that 
could  have  suggested  the  piece;  weigh  each  word  in  it 
and  see  what  a  clearness  and  precision  is  before  you. 

Xow  take  your  life ;  aye,  a  day  of  your  life ;  say  from 
morn  to  eve.  Just  when  you  retire  for  the  night,  re- 
count each  word  act  and  deed  of  yours  from  morning 
till  then.  Think  over  each  of  them  in  an  impartial 
light;  see  what  a  host  of  light — true  light — is  thrown, 
and  ever}'thing  in  its  right  sense  is  revealed  to  you.  If 
your  recounting  portrays  your  acts  of  the  day  in  a  light 
which  would  make  you  blush,  turn  over  a  new  leaf  and 
improve  yourself. 

Try  this  for  a  week  and  say  whether  you  have  become 
master  of  your  actions  or  not.  A  rigid  training  along 
this  line  will  make  you  pure  and  enable  you  to  control 
yourself  and  this  leads  to  success. 

BREATH— The  Bible  says:— "And  the  Lord  God 
breathed  into  the  nostrils  the  breath  of  life  and  man 
became  a  living  Soul." 

Man  cannot  live  without  air  even  for  a  few  minutes, 
whereas  he  can  go  without  food  and  water  for  days  to- 


MEDITATION'  EXERCISE  149 

gether.  Breath  is  the  life  of  mau.  The  whole  mys- 
tery of  life  is  centered  in  this  Breath. 

Every  day  we  hear  about  proper  ventilation  and  the 
great  value  of  pure  air.  All  this  is  good  and  right. 
Proper  ventilation  is  highly  desirable.  Pure  air  is  es- 
sential. Above  all,  the  way  of  breathing  is  nearly  as 
important  as  the  quality  of  air  3'ou  breathe. 

God  has  created  air  in  abundant  quantity;  it  is  the 
only  thing  pervading  space.  It  sustains  all  lives  by 
oxygen,  its  life-giving  property. 

The  act  of  breathing  not  only  helps  you  to  draw  oxy- 
gen from  the  air  but  it  also  helps  to  throw  out  certain 
poisonous  matter  formed  in  the  body  by  the  breaking 
down  of  the  tissues.  The  blood  has  a  duty  to  perform. 
It  makes  a  complete  circuit  in  three  minutes;  carries 
ox3-gen  to  the  tissues  for  their  upkeep  and  takes  the 
poison  from  thence  and  tlirows  it  out  through  the  lungs. 
This  taking  of  oxygen  and  throwing  out  of  poison  is 
performed  through  breatli.  So  here  you  see  that  slow 
breathing  will  take  in  more  of  the  life  giving  oxygen 
and  at  the  same  time  throw  out  more  of  the  poisonous 
matter  formed  witliin.  It  is  estimated  that  one-third 
of  the  poison  formed  in  the  body  is  thus  thrown  out  of 
the  lungs  and  the  remainder  through  the  bowels,  skin 
and  kidneys. 

Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you,  dear  reader,  that  breath 
plays  an  important  act  in  your  everyday  life?  Just  try 
this  when  a  crisis  is  forced  upon  vou  or  wben  petty  cares 
of  life  seem  to  assume  abnormal  proportions,  by  sitting 


150       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

quietly  and  breathing  deeply  for  at  least  three  minutes. 
You  will  see  what  a  comfort  flows  to  you  and  what  a 
balanced  head  you  have  to  solve  all  this. 

All  the  greatest  statesmen,  the  greatest  generals,  the 
greatest  orators  and  the  greatest  thinkers  have  been  the 
deepest  breart;hers.  Deep  hreathing  promotes  vitality 
and  greatness.  Ambition  and  aspiration  both  mate- 
rially and  spiritually  are  fulfilled  only  by  breathing — 
breathing  in  the  proper  way. 

It  has  been  accepted  that  there  is  something  else  in 
the  air  than  oxygen — a  life-giving,  vitalizing  property 
which  the  chemists  have  not  been  able  to  detect  or 
analyse.  It  is  Prana.  You  see  that  plants  around  you, 
aye,  the  whole  vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms  draw 
their  life  out  of  this  air  and  live  upon  it.  You  know 
that  vegetables  and  minerals  have  life.  What  is  this 
life?  It  is  nothing  but  Prana.  Science  has  proved 
that  men  can  subsist  on  air  without  food  and  water. 
Many  experimenters  have  tried  this,  and  most  of  them 
have  been  able  to  fast  40  days  together  with  no  kind  of 
food  and  drink  except  air — pure  air.  They  have  not  lost 
their  weight.  We  have  now  in  India  many  Yogis  who 
live  mainly  on  air  not  for  days  and  years  but  for  ages 
together.  Wliy?  Because  they  know  how  to  breathe 
and  draw  sufficient  Prana  from  the  air  to  keep  up  the 
physical  body. 

What  is  Prana?  Prana  is  Spirit.  It  is  alive  and 
conscious.     The  air  or  atmosphere  is  full  of  this  vital- 


MEDITATION  EXERCISE  151 

izing,  living,  conscious  Spirit  substance — the  breath  of 
life,  the  source  of  all  life  and  energ}-. 

Concentrate  on  this  Prana,  when  you  breathe  the 
breath  of  life.  You  will  see  that  your  subconscious 
mind  opens  to  receive  this  Prana.  The  mighty  seci^l 
of  the  miraculous  power  of  Yogis  lies  in  the  conscious 
reception  of  PRAXA.     Hence  learn  to  breathe. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


SELF-DE-HYPNOTISATION. 


In  the  foregoing  papers,  I  have  tried  to  enforce  upon 
my  readers  the  indispensable  necessity  of  shifting  our 
point  of  view  from  tiie  lower  to  the  higher  planes  of 
thought-life. 

It  may  be  with  regard  to  our  physical  self  or  our  in- 
tellectual self  or  our  emotional  self; — we  must  view 
and  manipulate  them  all  from  but  one  standpoint — the 
plane  of  the  Spirit.  This  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant principles  of  Yoga,  Yoga  means  Union.  The 
human  will  trying  to  come  into  the  plane  of  the  Divine 
Creative  Principles  practises  Yoga.  The  Creative 
thought  in  the  Divine  Spirit  must  of  necessity  exist  in 
our  minds.  Then  why  do  we  not  act  up  to  it?  Wliy 
are  not  our  efforts  directed  purely  to  the  working  out 
of  the  great  plan?  Why,  if  we  are  really  Divine,  do 
we  grovel  in  the  puppet-play  of  a  false  worldly  life? 

The  answer  is  we  have  been  thinking  invertedly. 
We  have  been  basing  our  conclusions  upon  the  sugges- 
tions of  the  sense-born  intellect — the  mind  of  the  Flesh. 
We  have  to  pass  from  this  standpoint  to  that  of  the 
Spirit — God — the  Absolute.  We  have  to  translate  our 
highest  conception  of  our  relation  to  the  Spirit  into  con- 

152 


SELF-DE-HTPNOTISATION  158 

scions  values.  The  mere  grasping  of  this  relation 
woilld  tend  to  their  objective  manifestation  in  us, 
through  us  and  for  us.  A  great  saint  of  India  said 
"the  Summum  bonum  of  Bodily  existence  is  to  realise 
in  the  human  body  the  Supreme  Personality  of  God;'' 
that  realisation  is  the  magnum  Opus  of  human  exist- 
ence and  it  is  possible  only  when  we  transcend  the  Lower 
self  and  develop  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  spirit  of 
the  Great  Will. 

Man  never  creates  anything;  but  when  he  seems  to 
do  so  what  he  has  done  is  this :  He  has  specialised  the 
Universal  Energies  under  the  directive  power  of  his 
illumined  intelligence  by  giving  certain  suggestions  to 
the  Universal  Creative  mind,  which  takes  up  the  sug- 
gestions and  moulds  out  the  form  from  the  Universal 
substance.  Thus  knowingly  or  unknowingly  we  axe 
ever  sending  forth  suggestions  into  the  Creative  Mind 
which  at  last  start  up  before  our  vision  as  objective  re- 
alities. From  this  we  conclude  that  the  Perfect  think- 
er alone  can  create  Perfect  Forms;  others  must  of  ne- 
cessity fail  in  this  task.  Hence  our  object  is  to  come 
into  conscious  touch  with  the  Perfect  thought  which 
gave  the  initial  movement  that  developed  this  Univei-se. 
To  accomplish  this  means  the  reproduction  of  the  Per- 
fect thought  in  ourselves.  For  the  Universal  tries  to 
find  expression  on  the  plane  of  the  Particular.  Indeed 
this  is  the  motive  behind  evolution,  the  development  of 
individualised  centres  of  consciousness  resting  in  per- 
fect recognition  of  tlieir  relation  to  the  Absolute.     Each 


154       DEVELOPIXG  HPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUS^'ESS 

soul  is  the  centre  of  consciousness;  a  ra)'  of  Divine 
Light  shot  into  matter ;  a  reflection  of  the  Divine  Mind. 
These  centres  of  consciousness  must  develop  the  Cosmic 
consciousness. 

What  is  Cosmic  Consciousness?  It  is  the  actualiza- 
tion of  the  relation  which  the  part  bears  to  the  whole. 
The  reader  must  not  commit  the  blunder  of  supposing 
God  to  be  capable  of  being  parcelled  out  into  parts. 
So  we  ar«  not  thinking  of  material  things  along  lines  of 
physical  observation^  but  of  that  which  is  behind  matter 
— I  mean  spirit — which  is  the  Life  that  ensouls  mate- 
rial forms  and  of  which  those  forms  are  simply  so  many 
projections.  Suppose  we  place  two  mirrors  facing  each 
other — a  large  one  and  a  small  one.  Suppose  further 
that  the  word  'Tiife"  is  engraved  on  the  former;  then 
by  the  law  of  reflection  the  same  word  shall  appear  in 
the  latter.  That  illustrates  the  relation  between  the 
human  and  the  Divine  minds.  Another  illustration 
given  by  a  mental  scientist  is  that  of  a  self-influencing 
dynamo  where  the  magnetism  generates  a  current  which 
intensifies  the  magnetism  thus  leading  to  the  generation 
of  a  still  stronger  current  till  at  last  the  saturation  point 
is  reacted.  Only  between  the  human  and  the  Divine 
minds  there  is  no  such  thing  as  saturation  point,  but 
the  recognition  of  the  latter  by  the  former  simply  ren- 
ders the  former  a  medium  for  the  specialization  of  the 
latter.  IN^ow  suppose  any  illustration  of  the  two  mir- 
rors, a  quantity  of  dust  accumulates  upon  the  small  one. 
Then,  neces.=arily.  no  reproduction  of  the  image  on  the 


SELF-DE-HYPNOTISATION  166 

large  mirror  can  take  place,  in  the  small  one.  By  evi- 
dent analogy  if  the  human  mind  is  clouded  it  cannot 
awaken  unto  a  realization  of  the  Divine  thought-image 
existing  in  the  mind  of  the  perfect  thinker — God. 

That  is  exactly  our  trouble.  We  are  labouring  under 
the  h^'pnotic  spell  of  thoughts  not  in  consonance  with  the 
true  spiritual  laws  of  the  Universe  as  well  as  our  true 
self.  This  is  the  result  of  the  inversion  of  thought. 
"We  have  been  under  the  impression  that  from  external 
conditions  we  can  develop  inner  stage  of  consciousness. 
This  is  the  master-spell  which  is  an  illusion  or  Maya. 
Our  entire  thought-life  has  been  n^sting  under  the  vi- 
tiating, poisoning  effect  of  this  idea.  This  is  the  poison 
seed  which  has  developed  the  mighty  tree  of  Maya.  To 
pluck  it  out  we  must  draw  inwards  and  realise  that 
inner  states  of  consciousness  wield  an  evermoulding  in- 
fluence upon  matter  and  hew  out  ever  varying  forms, 
just  as  the  image  projected  upon  the  specular  screen  of 
a  magic  lantern  is  really  determined  by  the  slide  in  the 
lantern.  Change  the  slide  images  and  you  have  other 
images  on  the  screen.  Change  the  thought  in  your 
mind  and  you  change  the  form  materialised  thereby. 
Influence  the  lower  self  from  this  standpoint  and  your 
thought-life  shall  take  on  newer,  more  beautiful  forms 
— which  in  reality  foiTa  the  grand  and  noble  stuff  com- 
posing the  life  of  every  highly  evolved  soul.  The  self 
has  de-hypnotised  itself  from  the  illusion  of  forms.  It 
has  foimd  its  place  in  life — sees  itself  as  the  principle 
of  life  and  is  free  and  immortal. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

SELr-DE-IIYPNOTISATION — II. 

The  way  is  long;  yet  despair  not,  awake,  arise  and 
stop  not  until  the  goal  is  reached — Katha  Upanishads. 

Life  is  a  constant  accumulation  of  Knowledge.  The 
vast  majority  of  humanity  are  the  pushed  and  a  few 
are  the  pushers.  The  latter  class  have  learned  to  grip 
the  good  in  everything  and  turn  it  to  account.  Some 
have  lived  to  purpose  in  the  world  of  matter,  some  in 
that  of  Spirit.  They  do  not  seek,  but  are  sought  after, 
do  not  weep  but  are  wept  for;  do  not  want  but  are 
wanted.  They  have  gripped  this  Lesson: — Knowledge 
is  power  and  Power  moves  the  world.  They  have  ac- 
quired knowledge  by  inner  concentration  upon  certain 
problems  and  then  applied  the  same  with  a  cautious,  a 
straight  aim,  and  tliey  have  hit  the  mark. 

Such  indeed  is  the  result  of  the  right  exercise  of 
Knowledge.  Xow  knowledge  has  many  aspects.  Some 
strive  for  the  matarial  side  of  things,  some  for  the 
Spiritual;  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  former  to  one  of 
the  latter.  Xo  blame  is  attached  to  either  class.  AYe 
must  all  of  us  follow  our  own  bent.  We  are  for  the 
Spiritual  and  will  therefore  see  how  we  can  live  the  Pos- 
itive Life  from  the  Spirit's  viewpoint.     "We  are  like  so 

156 


8ELF-DE-HYPN0TI8ATI0N  157 

many  pearls  strung  upon  a  band  of  gold.  The  band  of 
gold  is  the  great  Universal  spirit  and  each  pearl  is  a 
point,  a  centre  of  consciousness  in  and  through  which 
the  Spirit  is  trying  to  realize  Itself. 

We  are  half  devil,  half  divine.  Sheathed  in  our  coat 
of  flesh,  our  powers  hooped  in  by  the  physical  form,  we 
cannot  expect  to  come  face  to  face  with  the  Infinite. 
But  there  is  within  us,  behind  us,  before,  above  and 
around  us,  God's  Spirit,  and  we  can  realize  our  rela- 
tion to  it  by  putting  ourselves  En  rapport  therewith. 
To  accomplish  this  grand  event  "to  which  the  whole 
creation  moves"  the  East  Indian  practises  Yoga,  and  so 
gradually  unfolds  his  spiritual  consciousness. 

"We  have  tried  elsewhere  to  give  our  reader's  a  faint 
idea  of  this  subject.  Let  me  give  you  a  few  lines  from 
a  leading  writer.  The  gi'eat  distinguishing  character 
of  this  stage  is  his  consciousness  of  the  Oneness  of  All. 
He  sees  and  feels  that  all  the  world  is  alive  and  full  of 
intelligence  in  varying  degrees  of  manifestation.  He 
feels  himself  a  part  of  that  Great  Life.  He  feels  his 
identity  with  all  of  Life.  He  is  in  touch  with  all  of 
nature.  In  all  forms  of  life  he  sees  something  of  him- 
self and  recognizes  that  each  particular  form  has  its 
correspondence  in  something  within  himself.  This  does 
not  mean  that  he  is  bloodthirsty  like  the  tiger,  vain  like 
the  peacock,  venomous  like  the  serpent.  But,  still,  he 
feels  that  all  the  attributes  of  these  animals  are  within 
liimself — mastered  and  governed  by  his  Higher  Self 
— ^but  still   there.     And   consequently  he   can  feel  for 


168      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

these  animals  or  for  those  of  his  race  in  which  the 
animal  characteristics  are  still  in  evidence.  He  pities 
them  but  does  not  hate  his  brother  however  much  that 
brother's  traits  may  seem  undesirable  and  hurtful  to 
him.  And  as  he  feels  within  himself  all  the  attributes 
of  the  higher  Life  as  well  as  the  lower,  he  realizes  that 
he  is  unfolding  and  growing  into  these  higher  forms, 
and  that  some  day  he  will  be  like  them.  He  feels  the 
great  throbbing  life  of  which  he  is  a  part  to  be  his  life. 
The  sense  of  separateness  is  slipping  from  him.  He  feels 
the  security  that  comes  from  this  consciousness  of  his 
identity  with  the  All  Life,  and  consequently  he  cannot 
Fear.  He  faces  today  and  tomorrow  without  fear,  and 
marches  forward  towards  the  Divine  Adventure  with 
joy  in  his  heart.  He  feels  at  home,  for  is  not  the 
Universe  akin  to  him — is  he  not  among  his  own  ? 

Such  a  consciousness  divests  him  of  Fear,  Hate,  con- 
demnation. It  teaches  him  to  be  kind.  It  makes  him 
realise  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man.  It  substitutes  a  ''knowing"  for  a  '^blind  belief." 
It  makes  man  over  and  starts  him  on  a  new  stage  of 
his  journey,   a  changed  being. 

Xo  wonder  that  one  in  this  stage  is  misunderstood 
by  merely  intellectually  advanced  people.  Xo  wonder 
that  they  often  consider  him  to  be  a  man  functioning 
on  the  plane  of  Instinctivity,  because  he  fails  to  see 
"Evil"  in  what  seems  so  to  them.  ISTo  wonder,  that  they 
marvel  at  his  seeing  "Good"  in  things  that  do  not  appear 
so  to  them.     He  is  like  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land  and 


8ELF-DE-ETPyOTI8ATlON  159 

must  not  complain  if  he  be  misjudged  and  misunder- 
stood. 

But  there  are  more  and  more  of  these  people  every 
year — they  are  coming  in  great  numbers  and  when  they 
reach  a  sufficient  number,  this  old  earth  will  undergo 
a  peaceful  revolution.  In  that  day  man  no  longer  will 
be  content  to  enjoy  luxury  while  his  brother  starves, — he 
will  not  be  able  to  oppress  and  exploit  his  own  kind — 
be  will  not  be  able  to  endure  much  that  today  is  passed 
over  without  thought  or  feeling  by  the  majority  of 
people. 

And  why  will  he  not  be  able  to  do  these  things  ?  may 
be  asked  by  some.  Simply  because  the  man  who  has 
experienced  this  new  consciousness  has  broken  down  the 
old  feeling  of  separateness,  and  his  brother's  pain  is  felt 
by  him — his  brother's  joys  are  experienced  by  him — he 
is  in  touch  with  others. 

From  whence  comes  this  uneasiness  that  causes  men 
to  erect  hospitals  and  other  charitable  institutions — 
from  whence  comes  this  feeling  of  discomfort  at  the 
sight  of  suffering?  From  the  Spiritual  mind  that  is 
causing  the  feeling  of  nearness  to  all  of  life  to  awaken 
in  the  mind  of  men,  and  thus  renders  it  more  and  more 
painful  for  them  to  see  and  be  aware  of  the  pain  of 
others  because  they  begin  to  feel  it,  and  it  renders  them 
uncomfortable  and  they  make  at  least  some  effort  to 
relieve  it. 

The  world  is  growing  kinder  by  reason  of  this  dawn,- 


160      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

ing  consciousness,  although  it  is  still  in  a  barbarous 
state  as  compared  to  its  future  condition. 

The  race  today  confronts  great  changes — the  thou- 
sand straws  floating  through  the  air  show  from  which 
direction  the  wind  is  coming,  and  whither  it  is  blow- 
ing. The  breeze  is  just  beginning  to  be  felt — soon  it 
will  grow  stronger,  and  then  the  gale  will  come  which 
will  sweep  before  it  much  that  man  destined  for  the 
ages.  And  after  the  storm  man  will  build  better  things 
— things  that  will  endure. 

Have  you  noticed  the  signs — have  you  not  felt  the 
breeze?  But  mark  you  this — the  final  change  will 
come  not  from  Hate,  Eevenge  or  other  unworthy  mo- 
tives— it  will  come  as  the  result  of  gi'eat  and  growing 
Love — a  feeling  that  will  convince  men  that  they  are 
akin ;  that  the  hurt  of  one  is  the  hurt  of  all,  that  the  joy 
of  one  is  the  joy  of  all — that  all  are  One ;  thus  will  come 
the  dawn  of  the  Golden  Age.  (Eamacharaka's  Ad- 
vance Course  in  Yogi  Pliilosophy). 

This  then — the  Spiritual  Consciousness  and  the  un- 
foldment  thereof — is  the  motive  prompting  to  the  prac- 
tice of  Yoga.  Some  start  in  for  practice  before  they 
have  realized  this  aim.  They  have  seen,  heard  of,  read 
of  some  one  possessed  of  Psychic  Powers  and  their 
morbid  tendency  to  sensationalism  has  fired  their  im- 
agination. They  are  anxious  to  possess  these  Powers 
and  rule  their  brother-man.  They  are  anxious  to  make 
others  tremble  before  them.  They  are  anxious  to  strike 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  others.     These  men  do  not  know 


8ELF-DE-HYPN0TI8ATI0N  161 

that  they  are  taking  a  blind  leap  into  the  dark  and  ter- 
rible chasm  of  Black  Magic.  They  do  not  know  that 
any  thought  or  action  which  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously intensifies  the  sense  of  separation;  causes  fric- 
tion between  man  and  man;  causes  pain  to  the  souls  of 
others  and  lights  the  Hate-Flame  of  anger  and  impotent 
fear  in  their  brains,  is  a  retarding  force  and  exerts  a 
tremendous  pull  downwards  upon  their  evolution.  Such 
a  motive  has  in  it  the  germs  of  selfishness  and  the  dark 
powers  of  black  passion.  Such  a  motive  will  bring  un- 
told pain,  suffering  and  ignominy.  It  is  the  result  of 
a  Eajasic  nature,  where  the  intellectual  powers  are 
strong  and  the  glow  of  passions  arising  from  the  desire 
to  rule  is  fierce  and  destructive.  These  are  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Left-hand  Path.  Their  wills  are  strong 
as  iron,  their  natures  intense  and  implrtpable,  their 
hearts  cruel  and  devoid  of  gentle  feeling,  their  passions 
seething  and  persistent.  Yet  all  these  will  and  must 
be  shattered  to  tiny  bits  when  set  against  the  Great  Will 
which  is  first  the  Fount  of  Love  and  Compassion  and 
then  bids  everything  to  be  governed  by  the  Law  of 
Love. 

The  modern  craze  after  hypnotism  has  a  dark  side  to 
it.  Back  of  all  hypnotic  influence  there  is  the  subtle 
power  of  suggestion,  personal  magnetism,  a  powerful 
personality;  and  all  these  things  are  purely  and  simply 
the  results  of  organized  thought-Force  and  a  trained 
Will-power.  Xow  these  two  forces,  namely  thought- 
force   and  will-power,  govern   all  the  universe.     When. 


102      Dt'VELOPIXO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

the}'  are  spiritualized,  that  is  to  say,  when  their  action 
is  subjected  to  the  controlling  influence  of  the  Law  of 
Love,  they  command  an  irresistible  position.  They 
strike  where  daggers  fail, — of  course,  they  may  as  a  rule 
work  both  ways,  for  good  or  for  evil,  and,  in  either  case, 
their  subtle  power  makes  itself  felt.  However,  this  sub- 
ject is  very  wide  and  not  within  our  province.  I  simply 
want  to  call  attention  to  the  pitfalls  of  Hypnotic  Power 
and  warn  you  against  making  use  of  or  allowing  your- 
self to  be  controlled  by  any  such  malign  and  insidious 
influence. 

-STow  you  who  read  this  might  view  it  all  from  a  sen- 
sational standpoint  and  wish  to  practice  hypnotism, 
although,  of  course,  I  do  not  believe  it,  for  if  you  desire 
such  power,  your  character  must  be  dwarfed  and  Yoga 
is  a  path  bristling  with  thorns  for  a  selfish  man.  But 
student,  sternly  curb  and  kill  out  by  determined  and 
scientific  training  all  such  propensities.  They  are  dag- 
gers to  stab  you,  thorns  to  pierce  your  feet;  they  are 
the  efforts  used  by  the  order  of  Black  Magicians  to  re- 
tard your  evolution.  Before  entering  this  Path,  weigh, 
measure,  gauge  and  study  your  character  and  build  it 
up  along  spiritual  lines,  and  these  false  desires  will 
vanish  as  the  mist  before  the  sun. 

TMiile  commenting  on  this  great  sin — the  sense  of 
separateness — these  words  in  the  Light  on  the  Path 
ring  in  my  ears.  Let  me  quote  them  in  full :  "Seek 
in  the  heart  the  source  of  evil  and  expunge  it.  It 
lives  fruitfully  in  the  heart  of  the  devoted  disciple,  as 


SELF-DE-HYPNOTISATION  163 

•well  as  in  the  heart  of  the  man  of  desire.  Only  the 
strong  can  kill  it  out.  The  weak  must  wait  for  its 
growth,  its  fruition  and  its  death.  It  is  a  plant  that 
lives  and  increases  throughout  the  ages.  It  flowers  when 
the  man  has  accimiulated  unto  himself  innumerable  ex- 
istences. He  who  will  enter  wpon  the  path  of  power 
must  tear  this  thing  out  of  his  heart.  Then  the  heart 
will  bleed  and  the  whole  life  of  the  man  seem  to  be  ut- 
terly dissolved.  This  ordeal  must  be  endured.  It 
may  come  at  the  first  step  of  the  perilous  ladder,  which 
leads  to  the  path  of  life ;  it  may  come  at  the  last.  But, 
0  Disciple,  remember  that  it  has  to  be  endured;  and 
fasten  the  energies  of  your  soul  upon  the  task.  Live 
neither  in  the  present,  nor  in  the  future,  but  in  the 
Eternal.  This  giant  weed  cannot  flower  there;  this 
blot  upon  existence  is  wiped  out  by  the  very  atmosphere 
of  Eternal  thought." 

The  first  duty  of  the  initiate  is  to  guard  against  this 
"Source  of  evil" — which  is  really  the  sense  of  Self- 
righteousness  and  the  exalting  of  our  o-rti  personality 
above  that  of  others.  It  is  refined  animalism.  It  is 
intellectual  pride  and  Egoism.  Its  climax  is  Black 
Magic — the  giant  weed.  It  belongs  to  the  lower  part 
of  ourselves — the  passionate  side  of  us,  from  which  pro- 
ceed hatred,  jealousy,  malice,  desire  for  revenge,  self- 
glorification — and  these  tend  to  the  setting  up  of  a  di- 
viding wall  between  man  and  man.  "We  contract  our- 
selves by  such  practices.  We  are  thereby  building  up 
a  shell   around  the   soul,   which  it  cannot  transpierce. 


164      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

You  who  take  so  keen  and  deep  an  interest  in  the  Occult 
forces  of  nature  mil,  by  the  study  and  practice  of  Yoga, 
in  time  develop  a  higher  form  of  consciousness,  far 
above  the  average  of  humanity.  Katurally  this  unfold- 
ment  will  transmute  your  inner  nature  into  a  tower 
of  strength  and  your  mesmeric  influence  shall  gradually 
circle  out  from  a  smaller  to  an  ever  larger  sphere.  This 
is  inevitable.  Then  comes  the  crux  of  the  situation. 
AVill  you  develop  a  Will  that  is  potent  with  the  strength 
of  the  All-C4od?  that  is  flexible  at  need;  rigid  at 
need;  ever  strong  to  save  and  motived  by  the  highest, 
the  best  and  the  noblest  within  you?  When  that  great 
spiritual  giant,  Sri  Eamakrishna  Paramhamsa  was  ly- 
ing very  ill  at  the  Cossipur  Garden,  Pandit  S.  T.  is 
reported  to  have  said  to  him  "Sir,  I  have  read  in  the 
Shastras  that  Saints  like  you  can  cure  diseases  of  the 
body  at  will.  You  will  be  free  from  all  your  ailment 
if  only  you  concentrate  your  mind  upon  the  Spot — 
Eamikrishna  Swami  was  suffering  from  cancer  in  the 
throat — with  the  will  that  it  be  cured.  Won't  you  try 
it  once?  Xow  listen  to  the  noble  reply  of  this  perfect 
soul.  "0,  how  could  you  say  such  a  thing,  being  a  Pan- 
dit yourself?  Can  I  ever  be  inclined  to  remove  the 
mind,  that  I  have  given  up  to  Sachchidananda — the 
Essence  of  knowledge,  Existence  and  Bliss — from  Him, 
and  turn  it  to  this  frail  cage  of  flesh  and  bones  ?"  This 
is  renunciation. 

It  is  a  general  law  of  Occultism  that  the  White  magi- 
cian should  never  use  his  powers  for  the  accomplish- 


8ELF-DE-EYPN0TISATI0N  165 

inent  of  personal  ends,  thus  striking  in  at  the  very  root 
of  selfishness.  In  India  the  Spiritual  Healer  will  not 
even  drink  a  glass  of  water  from  the  hands  of  the  man 
whom  he  has  treated.  '*I  want  nothing  for  myself." 
This  is  his  calm,  dignified  and  cheering  speech.  In  the 
presence  of  such  a  man  the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  play 
together.  The  most  vicious  of  brutes  shall  roll  in  sub- 
mission at  their  feet;  the  most  wicked  men  shall  be 
struck  dumb  with  awe  and  reverence  on  contact  with 
their  pure  and  spiritual  aura.  Xought  out  of  or  in  the 
universe  can  injure  them.  This  is  the  great  power  that 
shields  the  Yogi  in  the  densest  jungles  of  India.  He 
is  a  centre  of  Love  and  Power  and  he  knows  absolutely 
no  fear.  It  is  the  thought-magnetism  of  such  men  that 
brings  immediate  and  complete  relief.  They  are  strong 
as  rock.  They  raise  not  their  hand  against  anything 
and  nothing  can  go  against  them.  They  are  living  ex- 
amples of  the  Law  of  Non-injury.  This  mighty  power 
of  Love,  compassion  and  ISTon-injury  is  deeply  imbedded 
in  our  nature.  Encourage  it  and  it  shall  grow.  It  is 
our  very  nature.  After  man  has  run  the  gamut  of  all 
ephemeral  and  sensual  experiences,  he  falls  back  upon 
this  heaven  of  peace. 

'Tiook  for  the  flower  to  bloom  in  the  silence  that 
follows  the  storm,  not  till  then.  It  shall  grow,  it  will 
shoot  up,  it  will  make  branches  and  leaves  and  fonn 
buds,  while  the  storm  continues  while  the  battle  lasts. 
But  not  till  the  whole  personality  of  man  is  dissolved 
and  melted — not  until  it  is  held  by  the  divine  fragment 


166       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

which  has  created  it,  as  a  mere  subject  for  grave  exper- 
iment and  experience — not  until  the  whole  nature  has 
yielded  and  become  subject  unto  its  higher  self,  can 
the  bloom  open.  Then  will  come  a  calm  such  as 
comes  in  a  tropical  country  after  heavy  rain  when  na- 
ture works  so  swiftly  that  one  may  see  her  action. 
Such  a  calmness  will  come  to  the  harassed  spirit.  And, 
in  the  deep  silence,  the  mysterious  event  will  occur 
which  will  prove  that  the  way  has  been  found.  Call 
it  by  what  name  you  will.  It  is  a  voice  which  speaks 
where  there  is  none  to  speak;  it  is  a  messenger  that 
comes,  a  messenger  without  form  and  substance — or  it 
is  a  flower  of  the  soul  that  has  opened.  It  cannot  be 
described  by  any  metaphor.  But  it  can  be  felt  for, 
looked  after  and  desired  even  amid  the  raging  of  the 
storm.  The  silence  may  last  a  moment  of  time  or  it 
may  last  a  thousand  years.  But  it  will  end.  Yet  you 
will  carry  its  strength  with  you.  Again  and  again  the 
battle  must  be  fought  and  won.  It  is  only  for  an  inter- 
val that  nature  can  be  still." — Light  on  the  Path. 

The  blooming  of  the  flower  is  the  silence  in  the  Spir- 
itual awakening  we  have  already  spoken  of.  We  have 
to  concentrate  our  attention  upon  this.  The  first  step 
to  this  illumination  is  Love.  This  is  Bhakti  Yoga — the 
religion  of  Love,  "hoxe  God  with  all  thy  heart,  with 
all  thy  soul,  with  all  thy  mind  and  with  all  thy 
strength."  And  "thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self." This  is  Love.  ISTo  maudlin  sentiment;  the  in- 
tense, burninor  love  of  the  heart  which  sees  all  as  one. 


8ELF-DE-HYPX0TISA  TIG'S  167 

Xo  man  who  is  a  slave  to  love's  opposite — hatred — can 
have  Mukti — Freedom. 

Then  there  is  Karma  Yoga.  He  who  has  lost  the  self 
has  gained  the  self.  This  is  the  Yoga  of  unselfish  ac- 
tion; service  to  others,  men  and  animals,  for  the  mere 
joy  of  it.  The  worker  cares  not  for  results,  cares  not 
for  himself,  but  goes  on  putting  forth  his  energies  for 
the  sake  of  others.  It  is  selfless,  sustained  action  in 
the  interests  of  humanity. 

In  Eaja  Yoga,  the  mind  of  man,  concentrated  in- 
wards, becomes  Self-illuminated.  The  Raja  Yoga  is 
the  master  of  mind  par  excellence.  He  sifts  the  grounds 
of  psychology,  develops  his  mind,  purifies,  trains  and 
controls  his  nerves,  opens  up  the  centres  of  force  in  his 
body,  conveys  same  into  the  brain  and  finally  transcends 
it.  He  then  goes  on  conquering  plane  after  plane  of 
consciousness  till  at  last  there  comes  a  stage  when  he 
feels  as  if  he  were  Everything  and  everywhere.  This  is 
Illumination — Saraadhi — and  when  the  Yogi  has 
achieved  this  he  has  achieved  all.  The  eternal  Pilgrim 
— Man — has  trodden  the  vast  cycles  of  existence  and 
fome  back  home.  The  son  has  been  united  to  the 
Father. 

Guyana  Yoga  is  the  Yoga  of  Wisdom.  Here  the  in- 
tellect is  at  its  best.  The  philosopher,  the  logician,  the 
man  of  Eeason,  have  their  work  cut  out  for  them  here. 
They  must  split  hairs  of  argument,  gain  knowledge  of 
the  workings  of  matter.  Energy,  Force,  mind-substance, 


168      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  reasoning  the  interaction  of  these,  finally  arrive 
at  an  intellectual  conception  of  the  Absolute. 

Let  me  add  here  that  the  reports  of  the  intellect  are 
by  no  means  to  be  condemned  as  inevitably  fallible  as 
some  philosophers  have  said  for  when  your  intellect 
contemplates  some  special  line  of  thought  for  some 
considerable  length  of  time,  there  pours  in  from  the  in- 
tuitive side  of  your  consciousness — the  Larger  con- 
sciousness as  some  psychologists  have  called  it — a  flood 
of  light  which  reveals  all  facts  connected  with  that  field 
of  thought. 

Once  a  philosopher  met  a  mystic  and  when  after  an 
interview  they  parted,  the  philosopher  said  "All  that  he 
sees,  I  know"  and  the  mystic  remarked  *'A11  that  he 
knows  I  see."  We  must  develop  all  round.  Unless  a 
man's  intellect  is  illumined  by  Guyana,  he  cannot  have 
any  conception  of  the  Eiddle  of  the  Universe;  unless 
he  has  this  knowledge  he  cannot  realize  his  relation  to 
the  absolute.  He  is  as  a  man  groping  in  the  dark.  He 
cannot,  in  the  absence  of  such  recognition,  experience 
the  joy  that  surely  results  from  the  love  and  service  of 
humanit}' — for  the  Lord  shining  within,  changes  the 
face  of  this  world ;  shows  me  how  I  am  one  with  others 
and  by  no  means  different;  until  the  Higher  Self  un- 
folds through  the  training  of  Raja  Yoga  and  dominates 
"the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  the  pride  of 
life"  no  progress  is  possible  and  progress  in  the  control 
of  the  Lower  Self  comes  only  through  Eaja  Yoga. 

It  is  time  we  came  to  the  proper  appreciation  of  this 


8ELF-DE-nYPN0TI8ATI0N  169 

fact.  Turn  once  again  to  the  Light  on  the  Path  and 
read  this  attentively  and  follow  it.  "Seek  it  not  by 
any  one  road.  To  each  temperament,  there  is  one  road 
which  seems  the  most  desirable.  But  the  way  is  not 
found  by  devotion  alone,  by  religious  contemplation 
alone,  by  ardent  progress,  by  self-sacrificing  labor,  by 
studious  obser\'ation  of  life.  None  alone  can  take 
the  disciple  more  tlian  one  step  onwards.  All  steps 
are  necessary  to  make  up  the  ladder.  The  vices 
of  men  become  steps  in  the  ladder,  one  by  one,  as  they 
are  surmounted.  The  virtues  of  men  are  steps — 
indeed,  necessary — not  by  any  means  to  be  dis- 
pensed with.  Yet  though  they  create  a  fair  atmos- 
phere and  a  happy  future,  they  are  useless  if  they 
stand  alone.  The  whole  nature  of  man  must  be  used 
wisely  by  the  one  who  desires  to  enter  the  way.  Each 
man  is  to  himself  absolutely  the  way,  the  truth  and  the 
life.  But  he  is  only  so  when  he  grasps  his  whole  indi- 
viduality firmly  and  by  the  force  of  his  awakened  spir- 
itual will,  recognises  this  individuality  as  not  himself, 
but  that  thing  which  he  has  with  pain  created  for  his 
own  use,  and  by  means  of  which  he  purposes  as  his 
growth  slowly  develops  his  intelligence,  to  reach  to  the 
life  beyond  individuality.  When  he  knows  that  for  this 
his  wonderful  complex  and  separated  life  exists.  Then 
indeed,  and  then  only  he  is  upon  the  way.  Seek  it  by 
plunging  into  the  glorious  and  mysterious  depths  of 
your  own  inmost  being.  Seek  it  by  testing  all  experi- 
ence by  utilizing  the  senses,  in  order  to  understand  the 


170      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

growth  and  meaning  of  individuality,  and  the  beauty 
and  obscurity  of  those  other  divine  fragments  which  are 
struggling  side  by  side  with  you  and  form  the  race  to 
which  you  belong.  Seek  it  by  study  of  the  laws  of  be- 
ing, the  laws  of  nature,  the  laws  of  the  supernatural, 
and  seek  it  by  making  the  profound  obeisance  of  the 
soul  to  the  dim  star  that  bum  within.  Steadily  as 
you  watch  and  worship  its  light  will  grow  stronger. 
Then  you  may  know  you  have  found  the  beginning  of 
the  way.  And,  when  you  have  found  the  end  its  light 
will  suddenly  become  the  Infinite  Light." 

Let  the  reader  study  and  re-study  this  beautiful  pas- 
sage and  formulate  the  ideals  of  his  life  along  these 
lines. 

The  mental  motive  temperament,  in  my  opinion,  is 
the  best  fitted  organically  for  the  rapid  unfoldment  of 
spiritual  susceptibilities.  Here  the  lower  organs  of  ali- 
mentiveness,  Amativeness  and  Bibativeness  are  generally 
under  the  control  of  the  Higher  Brain  Centres.  Here 
the  mind  predominates  over  the  body.  Their  emotions 
are  vivid  and  intense.  They  possess  great  aptitude  for 
mental  activity  such  as  is  induced  by  no  other  temper- 
ament. Their  physical  constitution  is  equally  fine  and 
possesses  an  instinctive  loathing  for  all  gross  and  im- 
moral practices  such  as  bind  a  man's  thought,  to  the 
physical  and  carnal  side  of  life;  their  thoughts  are 
quick,  clear  and  lean  to  the  idealistic  side  of  things. 
They  often  overstrain  themselves  and  are  very  impul- 
sive.   This  class  of  men  should  live  as  much  in  sunshine 


8ELF-DE-HYPX0TISAT10N  171 

and  open  air  as  they  can.  Their  sex-nature  also  should 
he  kept  clean  and  pure  from  childhood.  Parents  should 
never  hurt  their  feelings  nor  impose  conventional  doc- 
trines upon  them  for  they  will  never  submit  to  any 
domineering  and  are  generally  considered  "queer"  by 
coarse-fibred  people  because  of  their  meditative  turn  of 
mind.  These  are,  if  well-trained,  or  if  simply  saved 
form  the  society  of  immoral  men,  the  best  types  of  men. 
Their  eyes  are,  as  you  may  notice,  almost  always  very 
expressive  because  they  are  given  to  abstract  thinking 
and  much  idealism.  If  you  belong  to  this  class,  do  not 
think  badly  of  yourself  if  the  world  does  not  understand 
you,  for  you  are  far  advanced  and  have  a  much  more 
highly-organized  brain  than  men  can  in  their  present 
stage  of  unfoldment  rightly  appreciate.  You  must  learn 
to  control  your  emotions  or  you  will  find  yourself  tossed 
roughly  about  in  this  rough  world.  "You  are"  as  a 
friend  humorously  put  to  me,  "from  another  sphere" 
and  your  soul  is  seeking  to  view  life  from  "finer"  sense 
planes.  Do  not  condemn  yourself  if  people  call  you  an 
impractical  dreamer.  It  simply  means  that  the  phys- 
ical senses  have  little  attraction  for  you  and  your  intro- 
spective mood  implies  the  stirring  of  finer  sensibilities 
within  you.  Your  indifference  to  worldliness  is  the  re- 
sult of  satiety  and  I  for  one  do  not  condemn  myself 
on  this  score. 

As  knowledge  of  the  inner  life  increases  one  finds  but 
small  reason  for  frequent  self-condemnation.  By  this 
it  is  not  implied  that  you  should  be  proud  and  haughty 


172      DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOU8^'E8S 

and  all  that.  Even  euch  a  thing  as  '"spiritual  pride" — 
the  feeling  of  conscious  chastity  and  psychic  attainment 
— the  "1  am  holier  than  thou"  feeling — should  be 
guarded  against.  Such  a  thing  is  sure  to  have  its  fall. 
Many  so-called  spiritual  teachers  who  '"'spring  up,  grow, 
and  then  go  to  seed"  are  really  victimised  by  this  feel- 
ing. What  is  meant  is  that  you  should  not  hypnotize 
yourself  into  a  false  sense  of  undue  humility,  sh}'ness 
and  nervousness — things  which  sap  your  moral  strength 
BO  that  you  cannot  look  another  man  in  the  face.  Ee- 
member,  friend,  it  is  no  sign  of  spirituality  to  allow 
others  to  dupe  you,  to  "bite  you  in  the  face"  and  sit 
upon  you.  You  should  on  such  occasions  stand  up  to 
such  men  and  by  your  bearing  give  them  to  understand 
that  you  are  by  no  means  a  vacuous  fool  or  a  brainless 
scapegoat,  but  that  they  must  "keep  off  or  you  will  wax 
dangerous." 

Do  not  sit  with  or  have  anything  to  do  with  men  who 
have  no  sympathy  with  your  views.  They  must  either 
come  up  to  your  level  or  they  are  welcome  to  go  their 
way  and  leave  you  in  peace.  Do  not  go  out  of  your  way 
to  correct  others.  Do  not  unnecessarily  meddle  with  the 
affairs  of  people  who  are  self-sufficient.  Do  not  feel 
disturbed  if  people  make  fun  of  and  scoff  at  your  cher- 
ished ideals.  Let  them.  It  matters  not.  They  do  not 
realise  the  depth  of  their  ignorance  and  hence  their  dog- 
matising, care-crazed  peacock-like  attitude.  You  may 
safely  trust  time  to  bring  light  to  them. 

Let  me  recall  to  vour  mind  Hamlet's  most  truthful 


8ELF-DE-HYPX0TISATI0N  178 

words.  '^'Piire  as  ice,  cliaste  as  snow,  thou  shalt  not 
escape  calumny,  and  truly  even  the  Gi'eat  Christ  was 
maltreated,  so  what  of  our  puny  selves." 

The  student  should  cultivate  "Indifference."  Many 
have  complained  to  me  of  being  forced  by  sheer  pressure 
of  circumstances  to  live  in  the  constant  society  of  men 
who  are  given  to  obscene  and  immoral  practices. 

I  can  quite  understand  the  position  of  my  friends. 
Such  things  are  really  painful  to  a  growing  soul  and  to 
avoid  them  thousands  seek  the  forests  of  India  lest  "the 
world,  the  tiesli  and  the  devil"  should  awaken  responsive 
vibrations  within  them  and  spoil  matters.  But  all  can- 
not do  it  and  the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  the 
general  race-consciousness  shall  take  a  higher  range 
and  obviate  the  necessity  of  such  isolation. 

However  we  may,  for  the  nonce,  call  to  our  aid  the 
habit  of  shutting  ourselves  up  in  absolute  reserve  when 
forced  into  such  society.  Do  not  let  us  hate  them  be- 
cause that  would  be  a  serious  breach  of  the  Occult  law 
of  Love,  but  withdraw  your  attention  and  sit  perfectly 
still.  This  is  a  good  way  of  training  your  will-power 
and  you  should  make  use  of  it  to  the  best  possible  ad- 
vantage. 

But  should  they  by  overt  act  try  to  shake  you  off 
your  balance,  then  I  do  not  see  any  harm  in  "putting 
up  a  fight"  and  when  once  driven  to  this  step,  do  not 
desist  till  you  have  reduced  your  tormentors  to  final 
and  unconditional  surrender.  All  this  may  sound  to 
some  very  "Unspiritual"  but,  "Even  a  worm  shall  turn," 


174      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

and  1  must  warn  my  readers  against  the  will-weakening 
habit  of  allowing  others  to  make  fools  of  them. 

Hold  your  forces  in  reserve  and  turn  them  into  proper 
channels.  One  of  the  society  drills  so  common  amongst 
men  is  to  visit  one's  friends  for  a  little  "gossip"  and  an 
inane  time  of  senseless  laughter.  Such  a  practice  is 
declared  to  be  a  means  of  relaxation.  But  I  solemnly 
warn  and  forbid  my  readers  against  all  such  forms  of 
indulgence.  Leave  weak-minded  fellows  to  think  of 
such  relaxation.  You  and  I  simply  cannot  afford  to 
demoralise  ourselves  by  such  follies.  However  we  hope 
to  tell  you  a  little  more  of  all  this  in  our  next  chapter 
on  character  building  proper. 

Men  are  like  so  many  toys  in  a  toy  house.  One  blow 
and  they  go  to  pieces.  It  is  not  a  bit  of  use  covering 
a  hideous  carrion  with  a  mass  of  roses.  Our  very  love 
of  God  is  often  candidly  speaking,  the  outcome  of  fear. 
As  Judge  Troward  in  his  "Lectures  on  mental  science" 
says :  It  is  a  hidden  form  of  hate :  and  I  endorse  his 
statement.  The  eternal  one  has  never  given  us  cause 
to  stand  in  awe  of  him.  It  is  ignorance  alone  that  leads 
from  pitfall  to  pitfall,  and  Ignorance  is  the  absence  of 
Love.  Let  us  then  drill  these  facts  into  our  brain.  Let 
us  think  these  thoughts  till  they  become  flesh  of  our 
flesh  and  the  bone  of  our  bone.  Let  us  awaken  the 
electrifying  force  of  the  Higher  soul — the  Atma — 
Shakti  and  Gnana — Drikshti — that  alone  can  supply  us 
with  exhaustless  force  to  wing  the  Spirit  that  would 
break  its  cage  and  flv  to  Peace  which  is  Perfection. 


SELF-DE-IIYPXOTISATION  175 

Let  0  Student,  the  fire  of  the  spirit  course  through 
your  views.  Xought  can  crush  you.  Drive  and  thrash 
out  of  your  brain  all  thoughts  of  fear  and  worry.  Know 
yourself  and  thereby  know  everything.  Be  yourself  and 
thereby  be  everything.  Conquer  yourself  and  thereby 
conquer  everything.  Tremble  not  at  the  task.  That 
which  quakes  and  quivers  is  of  the  flesh  and  yours  is 
the  grand  onward  march  from  Passion  to  Peace.  Dif- 
ficulties are  only  as  a  spur  to  effort.  It  is  not  the 
greatness  of  a  difficulty  so  much  as  the  feebleness  of  our 
spirit  that  bars  our  progress.  Face  them  and  they  fly. 
Quail  not.  Quail  not.  These  things  touch  not  the 
Permanent  self.  They  are  the  incidents  of  our  relative 
personality.  There  is  never  a  rigid  barrier  between  a 
difficulty  and  its  breakdown.  Square  your  shoulders 
and  apply  them  to  this  wall  of  Illusion.  See  how  it 
vanishes  before  you.  I  say  again :  Be  yourself:  Know 
yourself:  conquer  yourself:  tnist  yourself:  and  nothing 
can  long  ensnare  your  manhood. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

CHAEACTER-BUILDING. 

Knowledge  gives  power.  Power  controls.  Man 
stands  for  inner  perfection.  Our  character  is  the  sum- 
total  of  our  inner  unfoldment.  What  is  unfoldment? 
1  told  you  in  my  paper  on  Spiritual  Unfoldment  of  the 
different  bodies  of  Man  and  how  the  right  control  and 
culture  of  each  body  would  enable  the  light  of  the  Spirit 
to  stream  forth  to  the  objective  plane  of  existence  in  all 
its  pure  radiance.  Here  is  a  beautiful  illustration. 
Take  a  small  but  strong,  electric  light  bulb  wrapped 
around  which  are  many  pieces  of  cloth.  Suppose  fur- 
ther that  the  electric  light  in  the  glass  bulb  is  the  Spirit 
shot  into  the  Spiritual  Consciousness  in  and  through 
which  the  Spirit  can  shine  out  without  the  least  ob- 
struction and  with  a  minimum  of  resistance.  Eemem- 
lier  the  Light  is  the  spirit  and  the  glass  bulb  is  the  thin 
veil  of  brilliant  mind — substance  known  as  the  spiritual 
mind.  The  piece  of  cloth  immediately  next  to  the  glass 
bulb  is  very  fine  and  the  light  pierces  it  through.  The 
piece  of  cloth  next  to  this  one  is  a  little  less  fine  and  re- 
ceives a  little  less  of  the  light.  Thus  each  piece  of 
cloth  as  you  go  lower  and  lower  is  less  fine  than  the  one 
immediately  next  above  it  till  at  last  you  come  to  the 

176 


OHARAC'TER-BUILDING  177 

last  piece.  This  cloth-piece  is  at  once  the  thickest  and 
the  least  illumined  of  all  others.  You  will  see  that 
whatever  bit  of  light  this  last  one  has  is  all  it  can  pos- 
sibly receive.  Compared  to  this  piece,  the  last  but  one 
is  brighter  and  more  desirable  and  so  on  from  the  bot- 
tom upwards.  As  you  take  off  piece  after  piece,  more 
and  more  light  comes  to  you  and  when  you  have 
stripped  off  the  entire  number  of  cloth-pieces  you  hare 
the  pure  electric  light  shining  out  of  the  transparent 
glass  bulb.  Xeed  I  tell  you  how  the  last  piece  of  cloth 
is  the  physical  organism.  The  grossest  and  least  light- 
ed-up  sheath  of  man.  The  ego  is  mounting  upwards  as 
it  were,  from  the  densest  veil  of  matter  to  more  and 
more  rarefied  grades.  The  more  rarefied  the  grade  of 
matter  in  which  you  are  clothed  the  more  highly  ener- 
gized and  spiritualized  it  is.  The  finer  your  body,  the 
more  powerfully  vibrating  the  pranic  force  animating 
it.  Think  over  it  in  connection  with  the  illustration  of 
the  tiny,  strong,  electric  light  confined  in  the  glass  bulb 
and  do  not  feel  particularly  attached  to  your  physical 
form. 

CHARACTER — CONTROL. 

Let  us  in  this  paper  confine  ourselves  to  (a)  Habit- 
control,   (b)  thought-control  and   (c)   self-control. 

I  have  already  spoken  to  you,  in  full  of  thought-con- 
trol in  a  preceding  paper.  I  advise  you  strongly  to 
master  and  apply  the  principles  laid  down  in  that  les- 
son conjointly  with  what  little  I  succeed  in  giving  you. 


178      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  COySCIOUSNESS 

here,  for  truly,  Habit  and  tliought  are  the  two  great 
piHars  of  our  whole  life-structure.  They  are  the  roots 
which  sustain  the  tree  of  Life.  Poison  the  roots  and 
you  have  set  your  plans  for  the  rapid  corrosion  of  the 
royal  tree;  nourish  and  strengthen  the  roots  and  the  tree 
shall  grow,  develop  and  expand;  it  shall  put  forth 
leaves,  flowers,  branches,  and  bear  life-giving,  sweet  and 
nourishing  fruits. 

First  of  all  let  us  consider  Self-Control.  What  is  it? 
How  is  this  great  virtue  to  be  acquired? 

What  is  self-control? 

Self-control  in  Yogis  is  demonstrated  by  perfect 
Soul-Calm.  A  perfect  Yogi  will  never  allow  himself  to 
be  cast  into  or  hurried  away  by  any  form  of  emotional 
disturbance  and  excitement.  Indeed  the  mere  idea  is 
absurd  in  connection  with  such  developed  souls.  Wlien 
they  move  through  the  restless  and  busy  throngs  of  men 
yielding  every  moment  to  some  emotional  impulse;  at 
times  sad,  at  others  glad,  utterly  unable  to  say  a  firm, 
"No"  to  their  impulses ;  unable  to  view  things  from  any 
higher  point  of  view  than  that  of  the  Eelative  and  the 
transient  form  of  existence  and  getting  miserable  and 
falling  into  dejection  at  the  least  touch  of  adverse  con- 
ditions arising  from  the  singularities  of  their  unillu- 
mined  intellects ; — on  such  occasions  the  self-controlled 
man  will  remain  unmoved  in  this  atmosphere  of  con- 
flicting thought-Magnetisms.  WTiile  all  sorts  of  thought- 
waves  are  dashing  against  him  his  mental  aura  remains 
untouched  and  unshaken,  and  he  radiates  peace.    When 


CHARACTER-BZILDIXO  179 

he  sees  distress  and  pain,  he  does  not  make  the  whole 
air  throb  with  his  cries  but  lie  calmly  sets  about  finding 
a  remedy  for  the  evil.  When  something  goes  against 
his  personality,  he  does  not  give  way  to  a  blind  rush  of 
anger  but  he  holds  himself  perfectly  unruffled. 

Tliere  was  a  great  sage  in  India  named  Vyasa.  His 
father,  his  grandfatlier  and  his  great-grandfather  had 
all  of  them  struggled  for  Perfection  and  had  fallen 
short  of  the  mark. 

Vyasa  had  him.self  striven  for  the  same  prize  and 
failed.  But  as  no  honest  seeking  goes  unrewarded,  at 
last  a  son  was  born  to  Vyasa  who  was  to  manifest  per- 
fection in  himself.  Vyasa  named  him  Suka.  He  taught 
him,  trained  him  and  initiated  him  into  the  inner  mys- 
teries of  the  Spirit.  Suka  was  wonderfully  intelligent. 
He  soon  grasped  the  principles  of  spirit  and  embodied 
them  in  himself. 

In  those  days  there  was  a  great  philosopher-king 
named  Janaka.  He  was  called  "Videha"' — bodiless, 
since  he  had  lost  all  thought  of  body  and  believed  him- 
self to  be  tlie  spirit.  Vyasa  sent  his  son  to  this  king's 
court  so  that  he  might  be  put  to  test.  Janaka  being  a 
developed  occultist  came  to  know  of  tliis  intuitively  and 
made  suitable  arrangements.  When  Suka  arrived  no 
notice  was  taken  of  him.  The  guards  gave  him  a  seat 
but  otherwise  were  quite  oblivious  of  his  presence.  This 
was  no  light  matter.  Vyasa  was  the  most  venerable  sage 
in  the  country  and  could  dictate  to  any  one.    But  Suka 


180      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

was  a  Gnyani.     For  three  days  and  nights  he  was  left 
to  himself.    He  sat  there  calm  and  serene. 

Then  they  conducted  him  into  a  splendid  suite  of 
rooms.  All  sorts  of  luxuries,  fragrant  baths  and  regal 
honors  were  paid  to  him.  Not  a  muscle  of  his  face 
moved.  He  was  calm,  serene  and  thoughtful.  This 
continued  for  eight  days.  Then  he  was  led  before  the 
king  who  was  sitting  in  full  court.  Music  was  playing. 
You  know  the  intoxicating  influence  of  music  upon  the 
brain.  Beautiful  girls  and  damsels,  fit  to  bewitch  the 
most  abstemious  of  men,  were  dancing  and  singing.  In 
short,  it  was  a  most  impressive  and  splendid  court. 
The  king  presented  to  Suka  a  cup  of  milk.  It  was  full 
to  the  brim.  "Go  seven  times  round  the  court  but  spill 
not  a  drop  of  milk."  Suka  gravely  bowed  his  head  and 
accepted  the  cup.  Eound  and  round  the  court  he  went. 
Thousands  of  pairs  of  eyes  were  levelled  at  him.  The 
music,  dancing  and  nautch-girls  of  ravishing  charm 
were  all  up  in  arms  against  his  concentrated  attitude 
of  calm  and  repose.  But  this  man  went  round,  and 
after  the  seventh  round  returaed  the  cup  to  the  king — 
full  to  the  brim — with  the  same  quiet  expression.  The 
King,  the  court  and  evervone  else  could  only  gasp  with 
surprise.  This  is  the  ideal  self-controlled  man.  ISTaught 
could  distract  his  attention.  Can  you  conceive  of  a 
more  positive  proof  of  self-control  ?  We  shall  do  well  to 
bear  this  story  in  mind  and,  whatever  be  our  position  in 
life,  our  gaze  should  ever  be  turned  upwards  and  in- 
wards.    N'ever  mind  the  form  of  occupation.     Always 


CHARACTER-BUILDING  181 

maintain  an  inner  balance  and  as  soon  as  you  are  free, 
your  attention  should  fly  back  with  intense  longing  to 
the  Higher  Life. 

WHAT    IS    HABIT-CONTROL? 

Habit  or  automatism  compels  all  organized  life. 
Habit  is  a  rythm  established  by  the  Will.  Xow  the 
former  is  Static.  It  works  along  sub-conscious  lines  of 
mentation.  If  you  lift  the  brain-cap  of  man,  you  would 
see  the  b«lt  of  glowing  and  phosphorescent  brain-sub- 
stance physiologically  known  as  the  Carpins  Callosum — 
this  is  the  organic  base  of  consciousness  for  the  opera- 
tion of  mental  energy.  The  finer  the  matter,  the 
greater,  the  more  powerful  its  vibrant  force.  This  mat- 
ter is  constantly  in  motion,  that  is  it  ever  vibrates. 

Habit  is  a  mode  of  motion.  It  is  the  same  pitch  of 
vibration  repeating  itself.  The  action  of  the  Will  is 
dynamic.  When  a  man  thinks  concentratedly  for  some 
length  of  time  upon  some  resolve,  deep  vortices  are 
formed  in  the  brain-substance.  To  these  vortices  the 
Will  communicates  a  certain  wave — motion  which  con- 
tinues till  the  force  wliich  gave  it  the  initial  impulse 
exhausts  itself.  The  stronger  the  will,  the  greater  the 
wave-length  and  the  more  lasting  its  action  and  the 
deeper  and  more  intensely  active  the  vortices.  You 
know  how  tenacious  human  nature  is  of  habits.  It  can- 
not but  be  so.  Your  thoughts  create  these  vortices. 
Your  actions  deepen  them.  Eepeat  the  initiatory  im- 
r"].=<^  and  the  Law  of  automatism  will  take  it  up  per- 


182      DEVELOPINO  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

manently  and  keep  up  the  motion.  Your  thoughts  and 
actions  register  themselves  in  your  brain-cells  and 
nerve-force.  Each  inward  tension  of  the  Will  develops 
changes  in  the  molecular  structure  of  the  brain  and 
since  there  is  an  immediate  rapport  between  the  brain 
and  the  nervous  system  that  which  exhausts  or  recuper- 
ates the  "Volts"  in  that  battery  of  vital  powers — the  or- 
ganized human  brain — welds  a  corresponding  influence 
upon  the  vital  centres  of  the  body. 

Professor  Elmer  Gates  of  Chevy  Chase,  the  great 
American  Experimenter  in  the  new  science  of  Psycho- 
Physics,  who  has  been  conducting  experiments  in  an 
elaborate  laboratory  through  complicated  apparatus  for 
measuring  the  sensations  and  emotions  of  man  is  of  the 
opinion — and  this  opinion  is  endorsed  by  D.  Carpenter 
in  his  grand  work  on  Human  Physiology  and  many  other 
leading  investigators  on  the  subject — that  every  con- 
scious mental  activity  creates  in  some  part  of  the  brain  a 
definite  chemical  and  anatomical  structure;  that  mind- 
activity  creates  organic  structure;  that  one  essential 
condition  of  remembrance  is  the  refunctioning  of  the 
structure  which  was  originally  created  by  the  conscious 
experience  which  we  remember;  that  organisms  are 
mind-embodiments ;  that  there  is  an  art  of  brain-building 
and  mind-embodiment  whereby  individuals  can  get 
more  mind;  that  evil  emotions  create  poisonous  chem- 
ical products  in  the  cells  and  juices  of  the  body;  that 
there  is  an  art  of  promoting  originative  mentation,  con- 
sciously and  subconsciously ;  that  immoral  dispositions 


CHARACTER-BUILDING  183 

can  be  cured  by  putting  in  the  same  parts  of  the  brain 
where  they  have  evil-memory  structures  a  far  greater 
number  of  good  sti-uctures,  and  then  keeping  the  good 
structures  functionally  active  a  greater  number  of  times 
daily  than  the  evil  ones ;  and  that  one's  mental  capacity 
can  be  more  than  doubled.  The  self-activity  of  the  mind 
creates   organic   structures   and,    says   Professor   Gates : 

''The  mind  rules  the  body.  Here  you  have  the  grand 
principle  of  magnetic  affinity  between  brain-waves  and 
health-conditions  in  a  nut  shell.  Psychologists  give  two 
divisions  of  the  Habit-nature :  the  natural  and  the  arti- 
ficial. The  natural  is  the  mode  of  motion  kept  up  by 
the  Instinctive  mind  for  the  up-keep  of  health  condi- 
tions. It  is  quite  well-educated.  Do  not  disturb  it  by 
trying  to  take  control  of  it.  The  body  has  been  abused 
and  badgered  by  the  artificial  life  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. Go  back  to  nature ;  have  full  confidence  in  it  and 
do  not  meddle  with  the  Involuntary  activities  of  the 
body.  As  to  artificial  habits,  I  will  simply  say  that  they 
arise  from  the  singularities  of  tlie  ill-developed  mind. 

Kemember  this :  All  instinctive  action  is  the  con- 
tinual and  automatic  swing  of  motion  at  first  initiated 
by  the  Will  and  later  on  established  on  a  permanent 
basis  by  continued  repetition.  This  rhythm,  if  improp- 
erly and  unwisely  initiated  can  be  swung  on  to  a  new 
line  or  can  be  disturbed.  The  will  which  started  the 
motion  can  assuredly  call  it  back  by  starting  an  opposite 
set  of  vibrations,  wliich  are  finer  and  more  powerful  and 
bring  about  an  equilibrium  of  forces  and,  by  the  further 


184       DEVELOI'iyO  SPIRlTiAL  OOXSCWUSiyESS 

sustenance  of  same,  develop  an  entirely  new  condition. 
One  can  change  one's  physical  conditions  as  well  as 
mental  and  emotional  states  by  suggesting  to  one's  sub- 
conscious mind  the  desired  transformation  and  by  con- 
structing a  mental  nicture,.  contemplating  and  project- 
ing same  into  the  realms  of  subconsciousness.  As 
James  Allen  puts  it : 

Mind  is  the  master-power  that  moulds  and  makes, 
and  man  is  mind  and  ever  more  he  takes. 

The  tool  of  thought  and,  shaping  what  he  wills, 
Brings  forth  a  thousand  joys,  a  thousand  ills: 
He  thinks  in  secret  and  it  comes  to  pass; 
"Environment  is  but  his  looking-glass." 
We  build  our  future,  thought  by  thought. 
Or  good  or  bad,  and  know  it  not — 
Yet  so  the  universe  is  wrought. 
Thought  is  another  name  for  Fate — 
Choose  then  thy  destiny,  and  wait — 
For  Love  brings  Love,  and  Hate  brings  Hate — 
Again :   All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  thought. 

Lord  Buddha :  "The  Dharmmapada."' 

Now  if  you  would  control  your  habits,  you  must  be- 
gin by  forming  Positive  Decisions  and  then  act  them 
out.  For  instance,  if  you  want  to  correct  yourself  of 
Fearfulness  and  Xervousness,  sit  quietly  and  repeat  to 
yourself  in  all  earnestness,  "I  resolve  to  drive  out  of  my 
brain  all  fear  thoughts.  T  will  not  permit  them  to  come 
in.    I  am  master.    T  am  Brave.    I  am  perfectly  fearless. 


CHARACTER-BUILDING  186 

I  resolve  to  be  full  of  Courage,  Snap,  and  mental  vigor. 
I  am  Master." 

Repeat  this  to  yourself  earnestly,  concentratedly  and 
positively.  Insist  upon  immediate  mastery.  Say  "I 
will  conquer,  this  moment,  this  very  moment,"  and  set 
up  the  Strong  Present  tense.  This  is  a  most  important 
fact  to  remember.  When  you  sit  down  to  concentrate, 
relax  all  over,  breatlie  deeply  and  gently,  and  let  your 
mind  dwell  exclusively  upon  these  thoug^hts.  Then 
gradually  wind  up  your  brain  to  a  state  of  inner  ten- 
sion. Do  not  contract  your  brows.  Do  not  clench  your 
fists.  Do  not  make  any  physical  movement  at  all.  Let 
the  body  rest  in  quiet  repose.  Let  the  mind  be  alertly 
poised.  Set  the  teeth  together  quietly  for  the  lock  of 
the  jaws  is  the  seat  of  the  will-force,  but  do  not  gi'ind 
and  gnash  them.  Simply  close  your  eyes  and  shut  out 
of  your  mental  vision  all  the  external  world. 

Eetire  into  yourself  mentally.  Draw  inwards.  As 
the  mind  becomes  tense,  the  body  naturally  follows  suit. 
But  this  is  not  right.  You  should  "break  off"  from 
time  to  time  and  then  begin  again.  Soon  the  body  shall 
be  taught  to  lie  quiescent  while  the  brain  is  intensely 
active.  Concentrate  twice  every  day  at  the  same 
hour.  Soon  the  Law  of  Periodicity  will  set  in  and 
lead  you  into  your  room  for  your  concentration  exercise 
although  you  might  have  forgotten  it.  Be  rigid  in  these 
matters.  When  you  have  once  begun,  do  not  be  over- 
come by  initial  failures  and  your  lapses  into  former 
states  of  mind.     The  new  form  of  vibrations  must  ad- 


186      DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

just  themselves  along  settled  lines  and  you  must  perse- 
vere by  right  thoughts  and  their  determined  execution 
into  actions  till  then. 

Do  not  make  false  promises  to  yourself.  If  you  do 
80  you  will  become  a  miserable  "dreamer"  pros- 
trated by  mental  weaknesses.  Determine  to  do  a  thing 
and  do  it.  After  you  have  made  your  resolve  to  banish 
evil  thoughts  and  crush  a  certain  bad  habit,  turn  your 
mind  to  Oppositely-higher  types  of  thought  and  habit 
and  persist  in  your  resolve  to  be  Master.  Remember  a 
resolve  will  last  a  certain  length  of  time  in  proportion 
to  the  force  which  generated  it  and  then  it  must  be  re- 
newed repeatedly  till  it  becomes  clinched  into  a  habit. 

Hold  firmly  in  your  mind  the  particular  thought  which 
you  would  embody  in  yourself,  during  the  time  you  are 
nourishing  your  body  and  at  least  an  hour  afterwards. 
This  will  liberate  certain  finer  forces  from  the  food  and 
nourish  particular  brain-centres  that  you  are  building 
up.  Do  the  same  when  walking  in  fresh  air  and  when 
having  physical  exercise.  This  will  deepen  the  thought- 
channels  in  the  brain.  Remember,  at  first  there  will  be 
resistance  from  the  lower  brain-centres,  but  as  the 
higher  centres  develop  they  will  take  absolute  control. 
Go  on.  Stop  not;  you  must  build  up  a  new  brain  in 
which  the  higher  centres  will  control  the  lower  ones  and 
this  process  of  Brain-transformation  has  to  be  done.  It 
is  very  painful,  but  now  that  you  know  these  things, 
and  see  the  absolute  necessity  of  setting  about  tlie  task, 
it  is  no  use  getting  impatient.    The  following  lines  from 


CHARACTER-BUILDING  187 

Dr.  Sheldon  Leavit,  M.  D.,  will  help  you  immensely 
when  practicing  the  above  exercises.  It  has  a  direct 
bearing  upon  the  setting  up  of  the  strong  Present,  I 
have  already  spoken  of. 

The  present  tense  ciystallizes  possibilities.  In  "I 
am"  and  "It  is"  are  wrapped  great  possibilities.  There 
is  a  wealth  of  satisfaction  to  be  found  in  being  al)le  to 
say,  in  all  faith,  "I  am  well,  I  am  strong,  I  am  Happy.'* 
Assurance  like  this  crystallizes  into  tangibility,  the 
things  for  which  otherwise  we  are  perpetually  longing. 
It  is  a  giant  hand  reaching  out  into  the  future  and 
bringing  to  our  feet  what  has  long  eluded  us.  Faith 
then  proves  a  wonder-worker.  It  stands  sponsor  for  us 
under  all  the  trying  conditions  of  life.  When  desire 
rises  within  us  for  some  great  good  upon  which  to  build 
a  useful  and  happy  life ;  the  Present  tense  of  faith  at 
once  brings  it  within  our  grasp. 

To  effect  our  purpose  we  should  not  hesitate  to  avail 
ourselves  of  the  help  to  be  had  from  any  of  the  facilities 
at  command.  In  a  particular  emergency  all  we  lack 
may  be  the  inspiration  which  shall  drive  us  to  triumph. 
Our  greatest  trouble  arises  from  the  tendency  of  the 
human  (lower)  mind  to  dwell  upon  failure  rather  than 
Success.  We  lose  confidence  in  our  ability  to  accom- 
plish because  we  ourselves  or  some  one  else  has  met  with 
failure,  and  it  becomes  necessary  to  churn  up  all  our 
emotional  energies  to  carry  us  past  the  sticking  point. 
The  best  of  us  are  not  using  a  tittle  of  the  powers  which 
we  really  possess.    Compared  with  what  we  ought  to  be, 


188       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

we  are  only  half  awake.  It  is  right  here  that  the  power 
of  assertion  can  do  effective  work  in  the  rousing  of  our 
dormant  faculties  and  bringing  into  strong  action  the 
forces  awaiting  our  command.  But  they  need  vigorous 
stirring. 

x\  young  physician  had  been  lying  ill  for  inany  weeks 
from  what  appeared  to  be  a  serious  complication  of 
disorders,  from  which  he  had  nearly  given  up  hope  of 
recovering.  All  his  powers  of  resistance  were  seemingly 
in  ruin.  He  could  not  sleep,  he  could  not  eat.  He  could 
not  speak  above  a  low  tone.  To  sit  up  was  beyond  his 
power;  his  vital  forces  w^ere  at  so  low  an  ebb.  His  cir- 
culation was  feeble  and  even  his  mind  appeared  to  be 
wavering.  After  a  careful  examination  I  pressed  upon 
him  the  need  of  summoning  all  his  mental  and  physical 
powers,  tottering  to  a  final  fall,  in  a  grand  effort  to 
throw  off  the  terrible  incubus,  which  was  crushing  him 
as  a  strong  man  might  cnish  his  foe,  by  one  vigorous 
and  desperate  effort.  It  did  not  seem  hard  for  him  to 
believe,  under  the  stimulation  that  he  would  ultimately 
recover,  but  to  bring  his  faith  to  immediate  acceptance 
of  relief  was  the  difficulty.  But  he  resolved  to  do  this 
and  warmly  confessed  his  faith  when  at  once  the  force 
of  the  ailment  broke,  the  life-forces  were  set  into  cheer- 
ful and  strong  action  and  he  soon  resumed  his  place 
among  men. 

In  reviewing  the  case  I  can  see  that  it  was  that  final 
culmination  of  all  his  hopes,  that  concentration  of  all 
his  mental  and  spiritual  powers  into  creative  assertion. 


Vn  ARAC  TER-B  VI LDIX  G  189 

that  lifted  him  out  of  the  desperate  condition  into  which 
he  had  sunk,  and  from  which  he  would  probably  have 
moved  downwards  on  gradually  declining  planes:,  to  ut- 
ter despair  and  death. 

Before  I  close  this  chapter  let  me  reiterate  some  im- 
portant points.  You  can  control  your  habits,  however 
perverse  they  may  appear.  A  complete  decision  of  the 
mind  is  the  first  step.  Effort,  yea,  Positive  Effort  and 
an  indomitable  will  is  the  second  thing.  Eemain  un- 
shaken in  your  resolves.  Remember  the  first  twenty-five 
years  of  every  man  constitute  the  Formative  Period  of 
life.  The  habits  that  you  carry  with  yourself  across  this 
age  become  persistent  and  die  hard.  The  psychological 
explanation  is  simple.  During  adult  age  growth  is  very 
rapid  and  your  brain-channels  are  strongly  grooved  out ; 
but  this  should  not  lead  you  to  despair.  You  can  render 
your  brain  responsive  and  pliant  by  earnest  endeavor  at 
any  period  of  life,  only  those  who  take  to  these  things 
in  their  youth  will  find  the  task  of  habit-culture  com- 
paratively easier.  But  it  matters  not  at  all  whether  you 
are  young,  middle-aged  or  old.  You  must  do  these 
things,  not  because  of  any  extraneous  pressure — you  who 
have  followed  me  so  far  cannot  and  should  not  believe  in 
any  such  thing — but  because  it  is  the  law  of  your  nature. 

At  first  when  you  start  forming  a  new  habit,  there 
is  resistance  from  your  brain  and  many  heroic  efforts 
are  necessary.  Then  gradually  the  task  shall  become 
easy  and  really  pleasant.  Another  important  fact  to  re- 
member is  that  if  at  some  hour  today  you  go  into  your 


190       DEVELOPING  SPIRITUAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

room  and  send  forth  an  intense  thought,  next  day  the 
?ame  thought  shall  start  up  in  your  mind  at  the  same 
point  of  time.  This  is  known  as  Periodicity.  Therefore 
supposing  you  want  to  perform  some  difficult  task 
with  which  your  mind  is  not  accustomed  to  cope,  Sit  up 
a  few  hours  previous  to  that  time  and  suggest  to  your- 
self, "I  wish  you,  subjective  mind,  to  prepare  yourself 
for  the  performance  of  such  and  such  a  task  tomorrow 
at  4  o'clock.  Be  sure  you  do  it.  Now  prepare  yourself." 
Xext  day  you  will  find  yourself  quite  prepared  to  accom- 
plish the  task.  Suppose  you  wanted  to  get  up  at  4 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Before  retiring  to  bed  say  to 
yourself  on  your  subjective  mind  "Look  here — I  wish 
you  to  get  up  (or  wake  me  up)  at  4  o'clock.  Be  sure 
you  do  it."    You  will  wake  at  that  hour.. 

Always  concentrate  your  attention  upon  such  auto- 
suggestions and  repeat  tliem  till  you  feel  sure  your  com- 
mands will  be  obeyed  and  they  will  be,  if  you  insist  upon 
their  fulfilment  positively  and  persistently  with  confi- 
dence. Believe  in  your  power  to  succeed  and  everything 
in  nature  shall  rush  to  your  aid. 

CONCLUSION. 

Dear  Student :  Before  we  part  let  me  thank  you  for 
having  paid  attention  to  what  I  have  said  thus  far. 
This  work  is  meant  solely  to  extend  to  you  a  helping 
hand  in  the  thickening  gloom  of  Materialism  which  I 
see  with  horror  and  pain  all  around  me.  Whatever  I  have 
tried  to  tell  you  has  received  a  trial  at  my  own  hands 


CHARACTER-BUILDINO  191 

and  may  it  strike  a  s}Tnpathetic  chord  in  your  heart. 
It  may  be  my  good  fortune  to  present  to  you  more  fully 
some  truths  of  the  Grand  Yoga  Philosophy  of  ancient 
India  of  which  I  have  hardly  succeeded  in  touching  even 
the  outskirts.  You  may  catch  a  passing  glimpse  here, 
a  flash  of  liglit  there : — but  what  of  that  ?  Tlie  Lord 
alone  can  enlighten  your  intellect.  Therefore  meditate 
and  pray  often  and  wait  in  patient  earnestness  for  the 
dawn  of  spiritual  Light  from  within.  It  will  come.  You 
cannot  escape  3^our  own  birth  right. 
Peace — Peace — Peace — be  unto  You. 


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